The Twisted Reality
by Shadenight123
Summary: From the smallest of pebbles cast in a lake, ripples can destroy continents. So if something a lot bigger than a pebble is cast, what could be the consequences? What if indeed. We train under the shadow of the leaf. We grow holding on to our roots. We are the shinobi of Konoha. Evil doesn't necessarily become good and good doesn't become evil. Things just twist upon a new reality.
1. The Blade

The Twisted Reality – Chapter First –

_**Thus the story begins…**_

_Konohagakure No Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

The green leafed tree in the garden had sprouted hazel and dark brown oval shapes, the likes of which his father didn't want him to eat raw. Not that it mattered much to him if they were raw or not, as long as his father told him not to he would not do anything.

The sun's glare wasn't even all that annoying on his skin, but his father had insisted on him wearing a straw hat. It made him uncomfortable and it slipped repeatedly on his face, but it was something tolerable as long as it got him out from the oppressive household.

He didn't know _why_ he actually hated the house. It was a nice villa, in the outskirts of the village but still within the massive wall of Torii and wooden palisades that surrounded Konoha. It held two floors of which the top one was used mostly for bedrooms, while the first one held a comfortable kitchen, dining room and his father's studio.

Recently he had heard his father mention in passing about moving a bedroom downstairs, to avoid the snapping of his frail back in going up and down the stairs. He had snorted at that: his father was a shinobi, a retired one but still one. There was no way mere stairs could defeat him, of that he was sure.

The summer glare did not give up in reaching under his skin, while the repeating noise of cicadas and grasshoppers seemingly blended with the low nursery rhyme he was currently humming to himself. He was twelve years old and according to his father, that would be the last time he'd ever know peace until retirement. His father was usually right about certain things, and that was why for once he had taken care to go outside and play, instead of holing up in his father's studio, pilfering the small library.

He did not belong to any famous clan. The Shimura was just that, a surname. However during the period of the six men cells his Otou-san had been partnered with a Sarutobi, an Uchiha and an Akimichi. It was also there that he had grasped the title of Sandaime Hokage.

The work that had come with that position still plagued his father's dreams, or so he told him repeatedly. He didn't know if that was true or not, but he didn't want to be a Hokage: he'd rather be a cool looking and bad-ass Anbu shinobi with a terrifying mask.

Maybe he could try and take the Fox mask or the Dog one. He shook his head a moment later: he'd probably end up following his father's footstep and take from him the Baku mask. The small mythological creatures that were all but myths had been his babysitters most of the time. His father didn't trust the Genins of the village and he had been told that when he had been an infant, he would cry if anything but a Baku lulled him to sleep.

"Taifuu!"

His father stood outside the door of the villa, his left hand perched on his walking stick while his right hand was in the bracers to keep it still. He had broken it during a fight against Amegakure shinobis, who had used a powerful poison that simply could not be removed from his system without amputating the arm. Instead, he had chosen to take a never ending pain in order to have Fuinjutsu etched bracer on said limb that could stall the poison from circulating.

He couldn't move the arm, but he could do hand signs with the right hand, and that kept him as a shinobi even until he was forced to retire from both the active career and the post of Hokage.

"Coming!" He exclaimed in a loud voice. Standing up he dusted the dirt and the green patches on his black shorts off, before making a run towards his father.

He stopped at the porch's single step, waiting for the scrutinizing gaze of the black haired man to stop roving over his clothes. A quick nod from him and he replied with a smile. Danzo Shimura held half of his face covered in bandages; once more a memory of war and countless battles, yet his face cracked a smile back at the sight of his son heading inside the house with a cheerful scream.

"Hurray! Ramen for dinner!" The raven haired boy's nose sniffed the scent even better than any Inuzuka could, and just for that small burst of emotion, Danzo once more knew who was his pride and joy. A hint of sadness overtook his features for a second, before a slow shaking motion brought the man back to reality, and to the fierce grumbling of the boy's stomach.

He was already seated at the chair with his hands washed when Danzo came in. The housekeeper took only a moment to finish cooking the feast: at least such it was in the boy's eyes. A small frown adorned his features a second later, as the bowls were gently placed in front of him and his father.

"Otou-san? What is _that_ _thing_?"

"_Hijiki_," the reply was slow and deliberate as the man split his chopsticks.

"What's that?" He asked again. It seemed greenish, and _veggie_. Why was he having ramen while his father was having…_that_? He thought his father would treat himself better than…some sort of moss-like substance.

Danzo raised his only eyebrow, before chuckling deeply from his throat. His left hand slowly moved the chopsticks with expert ease that comes with experience to grab a small piece of the accused green substance.

"This, my son, is what I _myself_ call a treat. Healthy, nutrient food of the highest quality: seaweed."

His father's words were lost to the boy's ears. He merely looked at that type of food with disdain, before pouting.

"Sea…_weed_? Weeds grow in the sea too? Dad! We don't eat weeds! You said so just yesterday!" He retorted hotly, as a little grin appeared on his father's face.

"You shouldn't eat _dirty_ weeds, Taifuu. Know this however: everything is comestible. The academy will do a better job in instructing you than I could on the matter."

"Yeah right, 'cause the Sandaime Hokage isn't qualified enough to teach me," he replied back bitterly. He could have started earlier, couldn't he? He could have had already a scroll filled with powerful jutsus, superior katas of war or things like that…even a bit of shuriken training. Instead nothing: he had nothing at all.

His father hadn't even said to him a word about what the academy was about, and even with all the little tidbits he had grasped there wasn't enough to give him a clear picture.

Dinner was consumed in silence. At first it had been a game set by his father to see for how long he could keep himself silent and quiet while munching. Later on it had become a routine and few if no words were exchanged at the table.

It wasn't that his father wasn't present. He was just busy enjoying his retirement by working offhandedly for the current Hokage, being a part of his advisor council and all. He shared that position of responsibility with the Yondaime's teammates, but he still insisted on doing everything nearly on his own, which took out most of his free time.

The lady with the pig was kind however, if a bit on the creepy side.

"Brush your teeth and go to bed," his father commented slowly, "Tomorrow you pack up for the academy after all."

"Hai, Otou-san."

_Konohagakure No Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

She wasn't ready for this. There was no way she was going to be ready on time for this. She was going to be late, damn frigging late, and the fault was going to be hers again. It wasn't completely her fault all the time! It was the clock that was faulty! She was sure of it!

She had barely reached for the fridge that a snappish voice pulled her attention to the side.

"Hey! Don't fret! I cooked for you too. Special occasion and all!" The purple haired woman that was her caretaker exclaimed pointing at the table. For once she sported a brief smile that turned into a frown a second later.

"Why?"

Had her caretaker been someone friendly, usually, then she would have had no problems. She would have understood the gesture as something that friends do, or at least people who like or love each other like family. But she knew this wasn't the case. She was just an orphan with a family name, brought in the household for the extra check that the Hokage delivered monthly to family who sent kids to the academy.

She hadn't even signed her consent for the shinobi academy: it had been implied with her adoption. They wanted someone who could mold chakra, and that was all there was to it. She had never been mistreated, or hated. She hadn't been hit, bullied or in any sort of way forced to do things against her will.

It was just implied that she had to learn how to fend off for herself, by doing small things like chores and cooking. It was nothing grand and certainly nothing worthy of being called mistreatment. It wasn't full out familial love, but as much as it was dysfunctional at best it was still better than the orphanage. If marginally because she didn't have to share the bed.

"I'll be going off on a long term mission," her _caretaker_, because she refused to even think of her as a _mother_, spoke slowly.

She eyed the food carefully. Was it poisoned? That was stupid. She hadn't been poisoned at all in the course of her entire 'second' life there. Why start then?

"Stop being paranoid," the purple haired woman added, "I'm going solo. I might not come back. I filed you to be transferred into the academy's dorms for the duration of the program."

She nodded weakly at that reason. It made kind of sense then. It certainly wasn't because the woman didn't trust her around the house. It was kind of funny, at least in the macabre way of the term, how she didn't even seem fazed by her suddenly cold behavior in eating the food.

"Weren't you going to be late?" The woman queried minutes later, her red lips curving into the start of a smirk as the teen's eyes jolted open with a snap, before dashing off once more.

"I wouldn't wear make-up!" She exclaimed from the kitchen, before the blur suddenly returned with two small bags, one per shoulder.

"Ready?" It was the only question to which she answered with a positive smile. She was ready. Soon she'd be freed. No shackles, no parents that were only that in name. Freedom to choose the way to obey, but freedom nevertheless…

She was out of there five minutes later, the keys of the small apartment already handed over. As her eyes settled on the masked form of the Anbu woman with whom she had shared years of life, more as roommates than family, she still managed a bare hint of concern.

"Good luck." She whispered, but having her business face on, Yugao probably hadn't heard her, or if she did she said nothing, disappearing in a twirling of leaves seconds later.

She slowly descended the stairs, eying warily a couple of other academy students like her that would soon enter the building. From there they would be then brought elsewhere within the depths of Konoha's. She had no idea what awaited her, what she knew was that they would take at least three months of in depth training before being given pause.

The academy's terms lasted three months each. Genins were brought forward like leaves to a tree through that method. Afterwards, it was all up to the teachers, to the student, and to luck.

Her aim was chuunin. A work behind a desk, a safe and monthly salary, no need for extra cash, no worries, a family…something normal. She'd marry a civilian and maybe get out of the job and retire after getting a couple of girls.

That was her plan, her life plan.

She subconsciously began to huff, as she realized she had yet to tie her ponytail back in position. She'd leave her hair like that for the moment and take care of it afterwards. It was unruly, and white. Which was just strange when compared to her amber eyes, but still that wasn't the reason she mentally cursed a second later. She had forgotten about the purple dye!

She had been bullied for having white hair once. Called a grandma, an old girl, and she had been pushed so down by that that she had cracked and actually _asked_ her caretaker for something to color her hair: that, or Taijutsu to break the bullies' bones.

The dye had to be reapplied eventually. She just hoped that academy students wouldn't be as immature as the park's bullies.

On the road, she was soon joined by a couple more of students. Nobody talked, but they all moved in the same direction and the nervousness was palpable in the air. Some had their parents follow them, while others tried to act like grown-ups while stifling the tears. Many thought of this as some sort of twisted summer camp.

They would be right, and also so deadly wrong.

A blur of pink hair passed right next to her, soon followed by a patch of red. The self-formed group found itself separating to make room for the two to run through, before whispers finally began to form around subconsciously made groups.

She had seen this sort of behavior around: somehow, some people ended up clicking and talk to one another. Sometimes it was by sheer chance, other times it was for information, but usually it all happened because of a glance, a moment, and then a connection was formed. Humans were creature based on contact, after all.

A moment later her eyes met those of an equally puzzled, but blue eyed children. He was sporting a pair of blurred patch marks on his face, like he had botched a tattoo or had been shoved face front in a can of ink.

His hair was black, and he seemed to be holding only one small backpack, a dull grey color. Not that her dark beige duffel bags were anything stylish or trendy to begin with.

"Seen you somewhere before?" The boy asked. Curiously, his eyes roved over her face, before shrugging with a light frown, "Never mind. You know what awaits us?" He queried with a low voice.

"I don't know," she honestly replied to him. There, she had just thought about connections and there stood someone she hadn't even _seen_ before talk to her. "I think we'll be settled in on the first day?" She tried to suggest, looking hesitantly at the face of the boy next to her turning thoughtful.

Sometimes, you get stereotyped. You either become someone to go ask questions, someone to avoid, or someone not important at all. Sometimes, you become a friend, others a better friend, sometimes you become the best friend. Yet it all happens because by instinct, we know who we'd want to have our back, and who not to.

She mentally scowled at herself. She had to stop reading those books of her caretaker.

"I suppose so," the boy replied, his eyes scanning the rest of the crowd of students, who were now clearly the majority on the street, being so near the academy.

"I'm Katsu," she replied, trying to make a small smile while hoping it didn't look too much nervous.

The raven haired boy nodded, replying with a light chuckle, "I'm Taifuu."

A chuunin-sensei was at the gates, gesturing for the students to move in and get in line where feet marks were placed.

"Get in line! Drop your bags in front of you!" The man held a scar across his nose, and his hair was dark brown and cropped in a ponytail. His forehead protector was held on his forehead by a blue strap of cloth. The Chuunin flak vest was a dark green color, meaning he was an active shinobi force and not a bureaucratic one. Those had grey ones with lots of spare pockets.

Taifuu ended up next to her, but in front was a pink haired girl that so much resembled the quick blur that had forced the crowd apart. Where was the red one, however?

"Silence along the rows!" A second voice, coming from a teal haired chuunin, flew through the air, "Welcome to the academy for shinobi of Konohagakure No Sato!"

Some began to stretch their hands uncomfortably, while others were looking around. Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of Hokage-induced speech?

"Unluckily for you, classes this trimester suffered a high number of refuses! Meaning we don't have room for you all!" She bit her lower lip at hearing that. She couldn't be sent back if there was no-one at home waiting for her!

She needed to get into the academy program, or she'd probably have to sleep on the streets for a couple of days. At least as long as it took to get the appointment with the Hokage and an apartment for orphans ready. Or maybe go back to the orphanage.

Even those were options, actually.

"In order to solve that problem, you will now start running around the academy building! Those who drop out first _will_ be sent back home! Right side, everyone!" They couldn't be more than forty-five, maybe fifty students. Some wouldn't make it, but she'd be damned before she let herself fail on something like running.

"Grab your luggage!" Now that was going to be more difficult. She had two small bags, so at least she could balance them. The pink haired girl next to her basically had a small satchel and nothing else; probably because she had been extremely late too.

The first lap went by easily. The chuunin instructors actually set up a march, instead of a full-out sprint. The second lap was at the same pace of the first, and some students began to chatter. The third lap went pretty much the same way, some taunting others to drop because they'd never make it if they were sweating even then. Snickers and insult flung in the air to those who had far bigger bags than others, but neither of the two chuunins actually said anything.

The fourth lap, things changed. The pace set increased drastically, and this time it became difficult to hold the same spot in the formation as she had before. She wasn't alone in this and some fared far worse than others, especially those who had but a single big bag instead of smaller ones.

Still, her breath didn't get ragged. Not yet anyway. It was just a lap. Something she used to do with her caretaker, when she still thought of her as maybe something a bit more than that. The next one came, and the pace was lowered down. Many caught their breaths, some began to pant or slow down to a low walk, ending up nearly last.

She found herself jogging next to Taifuu, who merely nodded to her without another word. She would have smiled back, but all that came was a grunt, probably.

She wasn't sure if she had grunted at him in reply or simply bobbed her head in a sort of stupid way. One of the two had to be the correct thing.

She hoped.

_Konohagakure No Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

It wasn't like he didn't want to make friends. He knew that teammates would eventually become long last bonds of friendship and everything. However it was just strange how the boy with purple hair tried his best to get close to him. It was like he was doing that on purpose.

Was he maybe one of those secret spies sent to investigate foreign villages that entered in a deep cover to emerge years later?

The pace quickened once more, and the thought left his mind. Nobody had yet dropped and by now he could actually see the slower ones coming in front of him. He had been one of those with the smallest pack, thus he also had been the one to slowly gain on ground on the others. Yet he was still behind some of the others.

He caught sight of a blond blur following a pink one, snappish remarks being made one to another, but he pressed on. If the two had time to spare bickering, then they might drop down before. It was with that sort of thinking that they reached the seventh lap.

The instructors were done playing nice by then. One got in the front of the formation, while the other moved to the back.

"Attention! Listen very well! We will now begin the second phase: attacking. If you lose your bags you will be disqualified, and thus dropped out!"

He had barely the time to slow slightly that the kid to his right got backhanded and thrown on the ground. The boy broke into a startled scream and a cry before the chuunin in question, the teal-haired one, exclaimed.

"Who said you could stop running!? If you stop running, you will be disqualified too starting now!" Those who hadn't been immediately caught by shock managed an initial sprint, before slowing slightly down while keeping the run around the academy.

Another kid fell on the ground pleading mercy. One more got a handful of stones on the face and was sent crying out of the grounds.

He merely closed his ears to the sound, prayed his luck and kept running.

"Present company. Halt!" The exclamation from the scarred chuunin came at the same time as the man appeared straight in front of the formation, with a speed that clearly seemed to tell them: _"we could have caught you all if we had wished for it from the very beginning"._

"This should be enough. Get your bags or what's left of them and follow me!" The man commanded, starting a light jog that the others were forced to follow, before stopping a couple of meters from the side of the Hokage's mountain.

The teal haired chuunin was already there, as was a red haired woman wearing a chuunin flak jacket of a light grey color. The two moved to the small rocky side that seemed to hold no particularly interesting trait, and then did something. The next moment, a small amphitheater revealed itself carved from the very stone.

"Go and sit down on a free seat!" The scarred chuunin pointed out, "Drop the bags to the left side, _my_ left side!"

The kids scampered quickly to obey, some groaning from the last stretch of effort. The stone rows were cold but smooth, like they had been a natural formation of the water erosion. That couldn't obviously be the case.

He ended up sitting next to a glasses wearing boy with a long dark green coat, while he could see that Katsu had ended up nearly in the first rows, next to a dark raven haired boy and the pink haired blur. Whether it was a natural hair color, or just a dyed one, it was clearly more visible than the rest of the crowd, barring Katsu. There were a lot of 'dead' colors, like autumn brown, dark blond, black. The only blond came from a girl that was seated next to the pink haired one, and it was clearly distinguishable from the others.

Once more, little chatter erupted around him.

"Man, I'm glad I'm in. Mom would have killed me otherwise!" A snarky voice commented in a corner, loud enough for him to hear. He didn't turn around, and when the noise kept on increasing steadily, it was clear that the chuunin instructors were still waiting on something, considering neither tried to move.

The red haired woman in the light grey vest was nervously tapping on the ground, her arms crossed in front of her chest. The teal haired chuunin was instead looking around anxiously, probably not knowing what to do. The scarred one suddenly clenched his fists, moving to the central spotlight of the amphitheater, then, suddenly yelled out loud towards them.

"_Silence_!"

The assembled kids quieted down all around him, and everyone's gaze was now fixed upon the chuunin in question. A puff of smoke sprouted from the ground next to the chuunin, and a white and red clothed individual emerged from the thick fog. He was wearing the hat with the symbol for fire embedded upon it, and his robe was the typical garb of the Hokage, if not for a thick purple rope that encompassed his waist.

"Yondaime-sama," the three chuunins respectfully bowed to the Hokage, whose golden slit-like eyes merely showed off his amusement at the gesture, with a polite rolling of said orbits.

"No need for all of this. Are these the new students for the academy?" The man's face was a bit pale, as his eyes scanned the children assembled, lingering a bit more on someone than on to another.

Taifuu kept still, until his cerulean blue eyes met with the Hokage's golden ones. He blinked once, in acknowledgement of the familiar figure that usually was a guest of his father, and he could see a mask of impassiveness settle down on the man chosen by his father to become Yondaime.

Orochimaru of the sannin made a brief chuckle, before addressing the entire crowd of children. His voice echoed through the amphitheater's stone walls, making it easier to be head even by the last rows. The first rows were kind of mesmerized, as the Hokage, _their_ Hokage spoke.

"It is a pleasure to welcome you to this academy term," the man spoke neutrally, "As many of you know, it is compulsory for those who can mold chakra to enter the military strength of our fair city."

It was the only way for Konoha to swiftly regain the military prowess lost following the third shinobi war and the Kyuubi's battle aftermath. He knew about it, and he shivered mentally at the thought of what some men and women had to do to keep Konoha on top. Genin teams split and single individuals sent to suicide missions in order to at least give the fake belief that Konoha was still the strongest.

He looked at the Hokage as the man quietly kept on talking.

"However in the shinobi world only those on top are privy to many of its secrets. Fighting styles, techniques, training methods, abilities and the inner working of many things are kept stashed under heavy wraps. The academy is the first step. You will learn the basis of what is to be a _shinobi_, to be a _kunoichi_, to be a _ninja_. You will learn the meaning of the words self-sacrifice, of what is really important and you will learn to survive and thrive in nigh-impossible conditions. Look around you, towards the guy on your right or the girl on your left." The soothing voice was so convincing that he found his eyes already moving to his right and left, before returning towards the Hokage's face.

"Out of all of you, only one third will be promoted in the first term of the academy. The rest will be held back. This will repeat itself six times. There are only a total of six terms of academy, all lasting three months each, with a one month interval between them. Two years of your life are set aside for the greatness of the leaf." There was a low murmur among the crowd now.

They had been told it would be only three months, not two years of training!

"Those of you who fail during the first term will be cut off immediately," Orochimaru proceeded, "those who however do reach the second term will be prohibited from leaving the shinobi system. Barring death or retirement at old age, you will become academy students in three months, and you will remain ninjas until the day you exhale your last breath or you willingly deliver your forehead protector."

He clenched his fists. This was what his Otou-san had gone through?

"From this moment onwards, your lives are forfeited for the village." The Hokage spoke slowly once more, "We are the shadows of the fire. We are the roots of the tree. We are the sword in the darkness. We are shinobi…and you _might_ become one too. We shall see." Finishing his speech the man didn't stay to idly chat, but disappeared after having given a curt nod of the head to the red haired woman.

"Well, now that that's taken care of," the red haired woman stated with a bright smile, "Let's proceed to separate you into groups!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands.

"There are twenty-seven students right about now in your class! You will now be divided into three groups, each made of nine persons! So please, step forward when your name is called. Grab your luggage afterwards and then get in line behind me!" she added, before starting off the list.

Aburame Shino.

A young boy with shades moved to the back of the red haired Chuunin, his entire body covered in a thick coat. How did he manage to run all that way without giving in to the heat?

Chouji Akimichi.

This one was a sort of round sphere of lard and fat. Once more he found himself thinking just how the boy could have managed to make the dash around the academy. He wasn't precisely the most trained one, but he had done some laps too around his house or in the garden. His father usually called _him_ a bundle of energy and yet he was tired. So how did that one too manage?

Hinata Hyuga.

The girl had the pearly white eyes of some sort of sickness, probably. She was startled by her name being called, and quickly scampered behind the others. She too had a coat on, and didn't even appear fazed by the laps.

Kiba Inuzuka.

Now he, he could understand. The boy was clearly at least trained in running. Considering the speed in descending the rows, it was obvious he should have managed the laps easily. Yet why hadn't he seen him to begin with?

Shikamaru Nara.

The pineapple haired boy groaned in frustration as he scratched the back of his head and moved down. He didn't even appear to have been sweating, but he kind of had a lighter than usual fishnet shirt.

Tairyoku Sarutobi.

A pair of glasses thickly placed on the tip of his nose. He was wearing a dark green jacket with a light blue shirt underneath. His eyes were dark brown and pupil-less. A small green baton hung to his side. Was that a weapon? Why did he have one?

Sasuke Uchiha.

Raven haired, arrogant face with a permanent smirk. The Uchiha fan embedded on his back, light blue jacket. It was a rogue Uchiha who gravely wounded his father. He knew he shouldn't be feeling anger at a person because of another's action, but _that_ arrogant smirk was something many in that clan held on their faces like it was a natural part of them.

Sakura Uzumaki.

The pink haired blur had a name finally. The girl smiled as he dashed to get in position. She was wearing a one piece red dress, and her eyes were a nice green color.

Ino Yamanaka.

She was wearing a purple dress, her hair was blond and in a ponytail, and as her name rolled off, the last one was there.

"Group A, follow me!" with that cheerful comment, the red haired chuunin guided her charges away.

Soon, it was the turn of the scarred chuunin. The names were rolled off his tongue with ease, and slowly, nine more students left.

The nine remaining did not need to be called for, and they got in line easily behind the teal haired man. Said man began a light jog towards the eastern gate of Konoha, without a word bringing them out of the gates and towards the forest.

The sun had already reached its highest point, and yet no order of pause was given. The tiredness of the morning laps, added with the heat of the fierce summer day was bringing him to the point where he was actually trying to lick his own sweat off his fingers.

He was the luckiest one. Out of all nine of them, he at least had but a small backpack to use while traversing the forest.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

She had foregone one of her bags, while throwing the handle of the second across her neck in order for the weight to go forward and better balance her running. As they entered the forest leaving the road however, she had soon realized that she needed to look at where she was putting her feet. They weren't walking on a trail, or on a normally walked path. It was just like it was the first time for anyone to trespass on said green.

Sometimes she swore she had seen their instructor cut with his kunai some branches, just to drop them on the ground where they could try and get into the students' sandals to harm their feet. Not that it would be needed since her own were hurting like crazy.

She gritted her teeth trying to hold her luggage on her right shoulder. She was in the middle of the line, and nobody was speaking. There weren't even whispers going around. They were exhausted and it wasn't even night. She knew but one boy in the entire group, and the two other girls looked positively destroyed.

One of the two fell on the ground, starting to cry at the pain on her left ankle. It was then that the chuunin stopped the line, and moved to the back to look at the damage.

"Stand up and walk." He addressed the crying girl. Ami seemed to be her name, at least from what the other girl was calling her while trying to soothe her.

"I want to go home!" She whined, her hazel hair being tied behind her neck in a fluffy ponytail that was now unkempt and ragged.

"Stand up or you'll be failed," the man spoke again harshly.

"Her ankle hurts! She can't get up!" Her friend tried to explain, but the instructor merely glared harder.

"Then she _fails_." The man added drily, "Find your way home." He added returning to the head of the line while the other students looked at him with their eyes wide. If they stopped, they'd be left there in the woods?

"March!" The man yelled, starting to walk once more through the thick undergrowth, "If you stop, you'll be failed immediately." He added.

She gave one quick glance back to the two girls, and then started moving again. She wasn't going to let go of her bag. She kind of hoped the other one was being kept in custody; after all they wouldn't leave it to be stolen right?

Still, the weight of the bag was ever growing and she was getting more tired. She hadn't realized it till then, but as her eyes looked to the other remaining students she came to the conclusion that she was, indeed, the only girl left. Somehow another boy managed to slip and fall forward, scrapping his knees and elbows and starting to cry. The instructor yelled at him, and then failed him before moving on without sparing another glance.

They were twelve years old: they weren't expected not to. Still it was like their instructor wanted them to be something they weren't. Well, she'd give him something: she wouldn't cry or whine about her leg muscles being murderously close to killing her. She wouldn't complain about the bruises on her shoulder or her neck. She wouldn't say a single word. She'd just do like she did at the orphanage: have her mind fly.

That did not work well at all. A merciless root decided to trick her left foot, sending her to sprawl on the ground with a yelp of pain. The bag she had safeguarded with much scrutiny was now dirty and on the warm earth. Still it did minimally cushion her fall. Of that she should be grateful.

"Up and moving!" She wobbled back on her feet, but by then she hissed in pain as her left leg seemed to have been bruised by the rocky surface. They were in a forest and yet there were rocks and wooden splinters scattered around, hidden behind the treacherous leaves that had somehow managed to fall down on the ground.

She couldn't push too much weight on that leg now, and the bag…the bag weighted too much.

She hurriedly lurched forward, one hand going into her bag while moving to grab the only thing she felt that she couldn't leave behind: the first aid kit. The rest was dropped unceremoniously on the ground, the contents somehow scattering around as she didn't even flinch while doing so. It wasn't that many of those clothes were hers to begin with: hand-me-downs from her caretaker. Maybe she had considered it some sort of bond, but she knew better. It was just another way to make end meets and avoid spending money on the _useless_ orphan.

She nearly fumbled down again, forcing her to concentrate once more with the task at hand. She saw a look of smugness on the instructor's face, or at least she thought it was something like that, before _nothing_ was said to her.

As long as she didn't stop, it appeared he wouldn't be saying anything.

Maybe they walked for yet another hour. Maybe it was two or three days without the moon standing up. Truly, she had lost count of time or of visibility, considering the shade of the trees had seemingly grown thicker and blacker. The time was all but lost when they finally reached their destination: a cave.

A cave with cold rugged blankets and a small fire already lit up, but still, it looked like their spot for the night.

"Well. It appears that having dead weight with us slowed us down: tonight we'll have to make a stop here and start walking again in the morning."

Everyone looked warily at the instructor, she had no doubt at least that the others were looking at the man with the same mixture of scorn and anger that she was clearly giving off. If she wasn't, then she knew on to work. There wasn't a sound in the forest but the crackling of the small lit fire in the cave. Yet there were but three blankets surrounding it.

"I'm going to take one blanket for myself," the instructor commented, "Then I'm going to go hunt for _my_ dinner. You can wait here for the night to pass or you can try and look around for food. If you are not here by the time I'm back, however, you will be failed." With those words leaving his lips, the instructor merely took the blanket and left. He disappeared without a sound, leaving but a few sparse leaves to float in the air for mere seconds where he had been a moment before.

Everyone looked at each other wearily, before moving towards the blankets like a single entity. They were really poor patchwork, and seemed to be made to tear apart at the minimum sign of tension. Yet they were also the probably only thing that could keep them warm during the night. Not that they'd risk freezing to death, but it was still chilly at night even in the depth of the summer.

The length of the blankets was a bit on the large size, but it couldn't fit all of them. Two at most, and that was staying really tightly attached one to another.

Now, she hadn't thought about it, but she had kind of expected someone to point out that she was a girl. Usually, it wouldn't have mattered much and she'd have let the sexist comment slide considering it could get her a blanket for the night. However nobody spoke. They all stared at each other with haunted eyes, trying to…to gauge out the others?

Taifuu, that was his name, was the smallest one of the group. Maybe he still had to grow or maybe he was naturally small by nature, but it seemed he wasn't being counted as a menace.

Yet when the kids' eyes fell on him, they fell on something that the boy had on his back.

"Hey." it was the tallest kid of them that spoke, his voice harsh from the continuous walking. His hair was dark brown, cropped on a small and cut off ponytail on the back. His eyes were a light hazel color, and he looked like the stereotype of the bully. Thick arms, broad shoulders and with a bad-ass tattoo made with a ball-pen on his right hand. He was wearing dark green pants and a light yellow jacket that had paled with the years to the point of becoming white. Beneath it he sported a dark fishnet shirt. "What's in your backpack?"

"A book." Taifuu whispered back, taking the backpack from his back and opening it for all to see. There were no secret compartments or pockets. It was just that, a hard cover book with its pages wrapped in plastic, with a thick green leather casing.

The title was _Botanical excerpt._

"You came here with only a book?" the question was of disbelief, and came from the second tallest. This kid had light hazel hair and black eyes, yet the disbelief soon morphed into a scowl. He had dark brown pants and a dark green shirt. Slobbered camouflage paint was at his neck: probably the thought of being a shinobi had come with some sort of botched attempt at having the best way to hide in the bushes on. "You came here _only_ with that!?"

"Could have brought something useful you stupid idiot!" The third one to speak was a black haired boy, smaller than the rest but still bigger than Taifuu by at least two inches. He actually had a pair of cargo shorts of a milk-white color, coupled however with a vivid purple shirt. The exclamation came together with a strong push that sent the smaller kid on the ground.

"Hey!" The black haired boy replied, trying to get back up only to be held at an arm's length by the others.

"What are you looking at?" The tallest one queried, looking straight ahead at _her_. Katsu knew what this was. She was being singled out because she was the weakest. She had been wobbling her way till the spot since a while, and the others had picked it up.

She would most certainly fail, so why have to keep her warm for the night with a blanket?

"N…nothing," she muttered, averting her gaze from the scene. Her left hand went to uncomfortably rub her right elbow joint. "Sh…Shouldn't we…get to know each other instead of fighting?" She tentatively tried.

"What are you stut-stut-stuttering about? You mentally retarded or something?" The blue haired guy spoke with a vicious snarling tone. It was like he enjoyed being the bully. Weren't these guys kids like them too? Why were they acting like that?

"Maybe he's a cloistered boy," the jib came from the fourth boy. Shoulder length dark brown hair, a black shirt and a pair of beige cargo pants. His eyes were dark brown and he seemed to be sporting a light scar on the right side of his cheek. "You know: the type that goes crying mommy after he gets hit once."

"Yeah well…the name's _Sutego_." Then, with a vividly strong punch, she was sent careening on the floor gasping for air. "You don't need a blanket, since you're going to fail by tomorrow. Neither does the chipmunk." The tallest one snorted in amusement before turning to get a blanket for him: the law of the jungle having chosen him as the chief of the others.

The other three followed their new leader, leaving her on the ground to gasp for air. She felt a pair of hands wrap around her shoulders, and was pulled to a standing position that made her wince.

"You alright?" The boy, Taifuu, queried. His eyes were reflexive and thoughtful, of a clear cerulean blue that made them look like pools of glittering water. That was probably her having a crush. Definitively the case, considering she hadn't known anything about the boy beforehand, and she certainly wasn't going to start crushing before she got out of the academy in one piece.

"Y…Yes," she whispered, "You hurt?" she queried. He had been thrown on the ground after all.

"Nothing to worry about," the boy replied with an extremely out of the place smile. It just made the two blotches on his face stand out more. At first she had assumed them to be blotches of ink, maybe some way to try and look cool. Instead now that she could actually _see_ them, she realized that those weren't blotches of ink. Those things were scar tissue, like if somebody had grated his cheeks raw.

"Who knew academy was going to be tough like this?" The boy queried out in a low murmur, as he tiredly sat behind her. His back resting against hers, she had to mentally berate herself for blushing. The heat on her face had to do with the sweat developed after the long trek, certainly not because she was having a crush.

"I…I thought we'd be doing some sort of summer camp," she admitted, "I didn't think…this. I can't fail however. I…I just can't."

She kept quiet for a moment, waiting for a reply. When none came, she slightly turned her head to the side, to try and get a look at the boy. He was lightly snoring. The boy had the guts to fall asleep while she was speaking.

This wouldn't stand…but she was too tired to discuss it, like she was too tired to point out that she was a girl and not a boy to the other bullies. When one of them got hurt, it would be her and her first aid kit against them and their whining, she was sure of it.

In the encroaching darkness of the night, she could barely distinguish the light coming from the fire forming a sort of halo on the ground and the proximity of the cave. They stood to the side of the cave's entrance: she'd wake up Taifuu when the instructor came back. The bullies wouldn't try anything with him around, would they?

Yet, as her eyes slowly drifted towards sleep, she kind of wondered why the kid that was standing back to back with her was so…_familiar_.

Maybe they had been at the orphanage together?

She'd ask him tomorrow.

_**And a blade shone in the darkness, the light reflecting upon its black surface…**_

**Author's notes.**

**You weren't expecting me so soon, were you?**

**Yeah, I suppose you weren't.**

**A bit more of points to read for the first chapter, to new readers and old: please read in a sort of elderly grandfatherly voice. The type that usually comes with a mug of chocolate.**

**Hello there. This is probably the most AU story I could devise within the entrusted madness of my mind, so please **_**bear**_** with me and these notes. First off, the fiction that you are about to start reading contains Alternate Universe stuff (or that you currently just finished reading the first chapter of that is). The meaning is pretty much clear to a lot of you, **_**however**_** there are some points that I must absolutely clarify before you (aka the reader) begin reviewing. This is to ensure nil ranting, or at least little to none for the chapters that **_**will**_** follow. **

**This Fic will be my **_**essay**_** on **_**AU**_** itself. You are all familiar with **_**The Harsh Truth**_** and **_**The Real Monster**_**. Well, I gave the Canon-verse a small push, some tweaks, and I created two completely different stories with completely different character maturation. The Real Monster was about pushing oneself above and beyond limits, seeking a home and realizing that from small things can avalanches be born. (Plus it also had Yanderism) The Harsh Truth was instead about Darkness and lies, deceits and finding who was going to backstab who. **

**This story is something like **_**both**_** of them and at the same time neither: instead of a small push in another direction I outright gave all the gas to the engine and broke the brake. What am I saying with this? That you should not, under any circumstance or form, assume that at any point anything from the canonverse that I by myself haven't written is real or has actually happened.**

**Now, however, I am going to state pretty much clearly some points of this fic in advance, because I want to reduce the 'rants' to a minimum. **

**In this story, Naruto doesn't have the Kyuubi. He isn't the Kyuubi. He doesn't even **_**know**_** the Kyuubi is still alive. In this story, Naruto isn't **_**Naruto**_** to begin with. **

**In this story, I'm afraid, there will be OCs. This is because, Kishimoto may be damned, there are very few names I can pick from Narutopedia to use and to merge in canon. So I will be forced to result to OCs. Make no mistake: I dislike OCs to the depth of my writer's core. I'd rather lower the age of other characters before using OCs, but in this case my hands were tied.**

**In this story, everything will be **_**Naruto**_**-centric or **_**Katsu**_**-centric, which means that there will **_**not**_** be other's point of views. This is in order to ensure that I don't go 'Stark-Raving-Mad' in case of scenes of battle (The reference of Status is a Dwarf Fortress one). Furthermore, it also helps me in regards of 'view points' of different characters. **

**Battles will **_**not**_** be flashy. There will be no loud yelling of Jutsus and there will be no ****Underlining**** the jutsus names, because they will not be used like that. They will be **_**described**_**, and if explained the **_**name**_** will be there, but that is all. **

**Academy and the likes will get an **_**overhaul**_** so drastic you might need to take a moment before reading something else. No really, I'm putting the M out there and they start at 12 to finish at 14. There's going to be a reason isn't it?**

**Many, many things will be **_**twisted**_**, but plot-wise? It's pretty much simple…(By now half the readers have that sort of expression that is a mixture between 'tsk-him doing things simple' and 'yeah, good one! You nearly got me!') You will see what I'm talking about eventually. (To give a Hint. Start with 'Yandere' and work your way around.)**

**Many, many characters' Jutsus, overpowered moves and similar are **_**not**_** here. Edo Tensei? No. Susanoo? No. Amaterasu? No. The Sharingan's ability to copy moves? Yes. I am not **_**bashing**_** a Doujutsu, I am making it **_**humanly possible to defeat**_**. Because if we assume Itachi's words true, then **_**Izanami**_** and **_**Izanagi**_** were something used at the order of the day, and making Genjutsus **_**reality**_**? Why did the Uchiha **_**lose**_** the war actually? Someone had a nightmare and another made it **_**true**_**?**

**This will not be about yelling teenagers growing up, sick pedophiles moving to slither their way around Uchiha eyes or similar bad childhood kids **_**toughening**_** up following some sort of ultra-agonizing moment of realization. This story is about **_**displaying**_**, and **_**portraying**_**, a reality completely different from what the Canon-verse is. **

**There will be humor, as always, but there will also be drama. Since I tend to recycle OCs be warned that you might see the usual OC Kumo Genins eventually, or Kuro, (I believe he even has a fan-club, the pesky reptile that he is!)**

**The chapters will be shorter. No Sixteen thousands hauls of words. However they should also be a considerably higher number (Who am I kidding? 28 is kind of my life's 42. But who knows?)**

**I hereby **_**swear**_** that I have no idea, none at all, **_**where**_**, **_**how**_** or **_**when**_** this story will **_**end**_**. I can assure you everything is written with the flow, and this time, there isn't even a clear and definite ending in mind at present.**

**There will **_**not**_** be pairings, not until chapter twenty-six do I reserve that right to choose. (Even then, I might actually wait a bit more) So no whining about 'it looks like' or 'NaruXOc?' everything is there for a reason. At least, I hope so too. Right Muse? *the muse whistles and leaves* Come back here!**

**I had trouble deciding whether to start the story 'at the beginning' (Cue Kyuubi attack overdone) or let the readers find out on their own what happened (Aka grate their nerves and leave them stewing for a lot of chapters). I kind of went with the option I felt would leave far more mystery. (And I enjoy **_**torturing**_** you poor souls, but if you keep coming back for more, then it's obvious there's something working in my writing style.)**

**Final Disclaimer: **_**Read**_**, **_**Enjoy**_**, have **_**Fun**_**. If you don't like? No problems, Rome wasn't built in a day, and I certainly won't become a good writer in a night. I do enjoy, truly, criticism. (If it wasn't seen, I believe the 'commas' have been fixed. Tell me what you think about it!)**


	2. Agony

The Twisted Reality –Chapter Two-

_**And a blade shone in the darkness, the light reflecting upon its black surface…**_

_Konohagakure no Sato Forest – Taifuu Shimura_

In his dreams, he was always crying in a corner of the orphanage's garden. Someone kept on bullying him for the dirt on his face, at least, that much he remembered. The garden of the orphanage held not much in regards of toys, as it did concerning shrubbery and weeds. It was a really old and foggy memory since he couldn't have been more than what, four years old?

In that memory, he recalled crying until someone patted him on the head with a squeaky voice.

"Tai-chan, I'm here. No cry." The voice was female, but the eyes…he recalled only the eyes clearly: a vibrant green jade.

As he tried to discern the rest of the girl's face, he was startled awake by a push. His eyes snapped open to reveal into a thick blanket of black smoke coming from the cave. The figure that had pushed him awake was that other boy, Katsu. He didn't know yet if he could consider him a friend or not, but at the present they were both in the same situation.

The sky was still dark, at least that much was barely visible from beneath the thick canopy of leaves of the forest. There were no sounds except the sputtering and coughing of the other four students, some sending to Kami some ill-suited words on what to do with a stick and a pineapple.

Sutego, if such was really the name of the child in question, came out with his face covered in sooth and his eyes red and teary. The other three of his _henchmen_ followed, since they had apparently already decided who was going to lead their ragtag group.

"You did this!" He accused, pointing his finger at the two of them. Obviously he had to find someone to give the fault to, in order to placate the masses. It was Katsu who spoke first however, snapping right back at the taller and probably even older boy.

"No we didn't! We were too tired to even move! We wouldn't be doing a prank like that right now!" His voice was a bit higher than normal, but maybe he was just scared they'd start hitting him.

"Yeah!" He added to Katsu's comment. There was no way they'd have done it: had the other boy moved he'd have probably fallen on the ground, considering his back had been resting against his.

"Like hell we'd believe you!" The group leader snorted, before raising his right hand and charging forward, probably to punch Katsu who was the closest one of the two.

Just as his fist was about to reach him however, the instructor appeared in poof of white smoke. Grabbing the boy's wrist he merely flung him against the ground in a hold, pushing his arm behind his back and making pressure. Sutego began to howl in pain a moment later, as the sickening noises of bone cracking were heard in the clearing, now deadly silent.

"Assaulting a comrade is a capital offense," the instructor commented, flipping out a kunai with his free hand. "The punishment is _death_."

Wide eyed, he stared as the kunai came down on the neck of the bully. A lump of nervousness stuck to the back of his throat as in few moments that stretched for what seemed like minutes the Kunai came down while trailing a wide arc in the air. The howls of pain soon were swapped with the gurgles of drowning in one's own blood. The small pool of the crimson liquid started to roll over to the boy's clothes, sticking them and dying them of the same color.

The few ranted gasps soon came to a term and the body of Sutego lay there on the ground, dead. The _corpse_ was kicked to the side of the clearing by the instructor, who didn't even touch it with his hands to make the transport easier. Instead he let them, let _him_ hear the snapping sound of the bones breaking under the assault of the reinforced pointed tip of the instructor's boots.

"One more failed. Now, anyone else wants to play rough?" The question was met with silence.

He was too shocked to speak, feeling like some sort of suffocating cape had been now hovering all over him, drowning him and making him gasp for air. He didn't realize he was clenching Katsu's arm hard until he heard him whimper softly. He let go in a second, clenching his fists hard as the instructor merely looked around.

The kid with the blue hair suddenly screamed when the instructor took a single step towards him and began running deep within the forest. The sounds of the branches being broken, of panting exhaustion, of pure shrieking fear, ran through the pitch black darkness until they abruptly stopped.

"Another one failed too it seems," the instructor said. "There are dangerous beasts hunting in the night after all."

They were four now. He knew they might not last until the morning. Was this really academy? Was this really normality of a shinobi? Giving the instructor permission to kill the would-be students?

What if…what if he had gone back to hunt down the other failures, killing them? He didn't seem to have brought any game with him back. He didn't even seem fazed by the dark smoke billowing into the air from the sputtering fire of the cave.

"Since the rest of you are wide awake, I say we can start walking once more." The voice was now calmer and clearer, the Kunai cleaned with a strap of cloth. "All of you have rested enough, right?"

Nobody answered, and yet he had a feeling somebody should have, because the man's face deformed into a villainous scowl that menaced or outright promised a gory punishment for its displeasure.

"When I ask you maggots a question, I expect an answer!" The man's snarling tone forced him to actually start shivering.

"Yes sensei!" It was Katsu who replied first. His gaze seemed to be a drill by how much it was looking straight ahead at their instructors. He surely did have guts to do that. The man had just killed an academy student, and they could pretty much be the next one!

"I didn't hear you lot." The man hissed, and for a dreadful moment his gaze lingered on him. It was just an instant, and he decided to be quick about it.

"Yes! Sensei!" The others complied at the same time, their blurting out more easy now that they had realized he wouldn't kill them for simply answering his question with a yes, and that they had at the very least a pattern to follow.

The instructor merely nodded, before giving his back to the four academy graduate and taking a single step forward.

"Well? Do I need to tell you to get in line!?" The next second, he was the second to last in the line. He could see Katsu in front of him, making them effectively in the middle of the formation. It was dark, cold and now that the initial stress had begun to die down the boy could clearly start to think again.

The first steps were done carefully, in silence. Then their eyes adjusted to the lack of light and the walk became easier. He just hoped they weren't going to lose their instructor's back in the darkness. If they did get lost, would that count as a failure too?

When the adrenaline finally settled in completely, his eyes began to drop down again. He knew he couldn't fall asleep there or he'd be failed, so he did the only thing he could think of. He began to bite down on his left arm to stay awake and generally pinch himself on the cheeks.

On the other hand however, the silence they were comfortably settled in was something he had begun to cherish. If they were walking the other two couldn't try and bully him, and with Sutego out of the way maybe they'd stop it. Especially with the words the instructor had said, it appeared there wouldn't be any other attempts.

It was when the trees began to become sparse and the light increase that he realized that they had, maybe, reached their destination. There was a large even field devoid of grass, surrounded on one side by a riverbed and on the other by a rocky formation. There wasn't a cave near, but there were clear signs of a fire having been lit in the center of the field. The ground was a dark brown color, and black sooth lingered around.

With the coming of morning however, another feeling became more and more prominent within his body. Well, more than one. Yet he couldn't be _excused_, could he?

"Sit in the clearing around that black blotch, like you were the cardinal points." The instructors ordered with a monotonous voice. The others rushed to obey, but he looked at the rising sun for a moment, before settling in a slightly to the left position.

"You idiot!" the dark brown haired boy at his right snarled. Probably they thought they could just set themselves in a cross like pattern without caring for what the real cardinal points stood for.

He didn't know why, but Katsu…he followed his own advice and moved to be in front of him. That actually touched him: the boy was willing to trust his own judgment on the matter rather than the majority.

When the instructor came forward, he clenched his teeth in wait. Was he going to berate them? Had he thought too much about it and in truth had made a wrong impression?

Two loud cracks resonated through the clearing, and hesitantly opening an eye he was met with the shocked gaze of Katsu. Gaze that suddenly turned green and then deathly pale: to his left and to his right the other two had their skulls _caved_ in by their instructor. The blood greyish things that probably were their brains scattered on the ground as both body fell limply on the ground.

"Good. This is an acceptable number." The instructor muttered, before moving to the river to wash his hands, all the while ignoring completely the two and acting unfazed, like killing students was at the order of the day for him…and what if it actually was?

Taifuu didn't know what to say to the other boy, who was seemingly as scared as him about the strange instructor. In just two days they had practically lost the other seven. They were the only two left and neither of them was any longer sure they'd come out of there alive if that was the way their instructor tested them.

"There are three rules for those who wish to enter the academy." Their instructor stated, moving back to the other two with his hands now washed clean.

"Love the village and hope to help preserve peace and prosperity." He said after a brief moment of silence spent in gazing from him to Katsu and vice-versa, before taking out a far more elongated kunai...with a clearly sharp side and a dull black other. The handle was white and made of bone, or so it appeared to be.

"Have a mind that will not yield, able to endure hard training and work." With those words, he pushed both bodies above the dark blotch on the ground, using his Kunai to cut chunks of limbs in order to form a neat pile. He and Katsu were seated while the man did the operation, and thus their eyes looked _enraptured_ at the entire operation albeit shocked would have been a better word.

The entire _bloody_ thing passed through their eyes and somewhere, somehow, entered their mind and stayed etched there waiting for the moment to resurface.

"Be healthy in mind and body." With those words, the kunai carved straight through the soft belly of one of the two corpses, and as the guts came out with pool of blood and digestive tracts he could hold it no longer. He retched on the ground, paling visibly as he did so because that meant only one thing.

He had kind of expected the fact that those who showed weaknesses would be removed swiftly, so he was waiting for the instructor's kunai to carve through his skull and maybe give him a quick and merciful death: that didn't happen however, as the instructor's foot kicked him on the left side, sending him to tumble on the ground.

"Do not interrupt my words." Was the soft warning of the man; what right did he have to use a soft tone now? He had killed, murdered, destroyed the others and right now he was…he was butchering two corpses in front of them! He tried to stand back up, only to be kicked down once more.

"Stay down. I'll deal with you afterwards." He added thoughtfully, as he made to return to his carvings of flesh and blood.

He had had enough: he tried to stand again and this time, as the instructor turned around to kick him once more, something he hadn't expected to happen actually happened.

_Konohagakure No Sato Forest – Katsu Uzuki_

She had stopped thinking about the scene in front of her, choosing to instead let her mind dream of something different in order to keep her sane. If you ignore the problem it will eventually leave, won't it? Yet when she heard the man speak she was snapped back to a reality were indeed, their instructor was carving up nicely the bodies of the two kids that had been with them.

Was it just yesterday morning that she had been worrying about being late? Was this really something her caretaker had gone through? She couldn't help but feel the insides of her stomach fight to become outsides. She tried to go back to her dream world while keeping her eyes open, but the retching sound of Taifuu brought her back once more. This time she cringed for him: it had been scary with the others, but out of all the others he was a fellow bullied, and he looked so _familiar_. It took a moment to come to term with the fact that their instructor hadn't killed him.

However the fact that he kept on kicking him down would certainly soon transform a plausible future into a certain reality, unless she intervened. She could keep quiet, let the instructor go on with everything and then hope to survive.

Yet this time she just couldn't. She had to intervene and that she did.

She launched herself at their instructor with a shriek, trying to get enough courage in her body to try and fling a fist at the man. All she got back was being backhanded and thrown next to the boy in question. That however did give Taifuu enough time to stand up and help her up.

"So you finally have the guts to fight back?" Their instructors queried.

"I'm not letting you kill him!" She yelled. So, maybe they were going to die together, it wasn't fine and it was far from the ideal way she wanted it to be but at least…

"Then what about you?" The instructor asked, his eyes moving to Taifuu, "You want to fight too?"

She could feel him tense. Maybe she had done a mistake in trusting someone so soon. After all there was no way to tell if he actually wanted to be helped or if he had just planned on going suicidal. What if he did actually try to pin the blame on her in some sort of way?

"Yes." He said. She had worried for nothing: it appeared they were going to die together after all. Well, it had been a relatively brief journey in the shinobi world and because of that…

"Good." The instructor commented, _smiling_. No. That was wrong. The instructor wasn't meant to smile and say that. He was meant to kill them swiftly, not give them the false hope that they had actually been spared from a miserable but hopefully painless execution.

"My name is Mizuki." He added, "Taifuu Shimura and Katsu Uzuki, you both have the qualifications to become academy students of the leaf academy."

Considering how her mouth had seemingly unhinged itself, and the fact that Taifuu was still tensing near her, she didn't utter a word as the man kept on talking.

"A class is normally composed of thirty-three elements. We did of course lie when we said we didn't have enough space, since we have more than enough chuunin instructors for everyone. Furthermore, considering the sheer size of our village graduating only eleven students a year would be _foolish_. Konoha's yearly graduate numbers easily reach the hundreds, even with the high amount of people being failed in the first year's application exam." A churning sensation settled within her stomach. She was starting to believe the man's words and that could prove fatal if it turned out to be a lie. He could be waiting for an opening before attacking them.

"The things we look at are normally the ability to prepare, to task, to work and to cooperate. There are bonus points assigned for making insightful considerations and point deductions for making bad calls. You were tested in a highly stressful environment that however was nowhere near actual combat level and did not crack until the very end. The will to protect a comrade even from an instructor that has previously demonstrated his ability to kill mercilessly is what we look for in new academy graduate, and quick thinking to figure out the best way to solve a problem is highly prized too. Congratulations, you are effectively enrolled as of this moment."

There was silence in the clearing, before Taifuu did something she had never expected him to do. He bawled and began to cry while falling on his knees. The fact that he was still holding to her just meant that she fell too. She didn't know how she ended up being hugged or hugging him back, but maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was feeling such an immense wave of relief that nothing mattered except getting the entire scare out of her system.

It was then that her eyes settled once more on the center of the clearing, to try and figure out if everything had been but a really bad nightmare. Truly, there were no longer the corpses of the other two kids there.

"Was it all…fake?" She asked, hesitantly ending up stroking Taifuu's hair. He was smaller than her of a couple of inches after all, and she just had to ease her nervousness.

"Genjutsu is the art of manipulating the chakra within one's own brain." The man added nothing else, and she didn't really want to pry any more. She just wanted to get out of there and have a shower. Maybe go and munch on something afterwards: anything sweet would have been fine.

"So now we can go home?" Taifuu queried, only to receive not the heated glare that Mizuki had sent their way for most of the two days before, but a calm and controlled gaze.

"No. Your luggage has been collected and already sent along to the training camp. The academy is there only for the theoretical lessons that you will undertake during the last term. Furthermore, from what I have received as notification from both your parents it appears you'll be both staying in the dorms until the end of the academy course." He added, "Unless of course you fail this first year attempt, in which case you'll have to worry about the civilian school, since failure in the first year means you are truly not fit at all to be a shinobi of Konohagakure."

She flinched at the mention of 'parents' but said nothing. At least it was clear that she hadn't met Taifuu at the orphanage: he was familiar but for a different reason. Maybe she had seen him at the library, or someplace like that?

"Sensei," she hesitated for a second, before finishing her sentence, "what now?"

To that question, Mizuki merely smiled and gestured for them to follow him. They crossed the river quietly, only then realizing that the noises coming from the other side of it weren't the mere bubbling of the water alongside the rocks.

The sparse vegetation finally gave way to a small wooden wall that seemed to be circling all around with no apparent mean of entry.

"This is just like the defense system of Konoha." Mizuki explained, "Unless in possession of a forehead protector, the entrance to the village is hidden from view as is the village itself."

"There is also a disorientation tag, right?" Taifuu queried, "My father brought me out once for a trip: when I raced him to the village he merely chuckled and kept walking. Couldn't find the entrance and ended up having to wait for him."

"He shouldn't have explained that," Mizuki commented coolly, "But yes, there is also that and much more in Konoha's defensive walls. This however is merely an illusion. The entrance is right between those two rocks." As he said that, the man pointed at two strangely symmetrical rocks in front of a section of the wall.

"Let's go get you enrolled in." He said, "And also washed up and presentable."

With a quick nod, she followed their sensei through the wall. She hesitated just a moment, letting her hand touch the surface of the wall before realizing it just wasn't physically there and passed through after taking a deep breath. When she emerged on the other side she chuckled lightly at the scene. Yes, this was a far better way of describing the academy's training camp.

Kids like them were running around, climbing posts, scaling walls or generally doing normal physical stuff. There weren't many kids around however: at most they could have been sixty or a little bit less.

"This isn't the only training camp available around Konoha," Mizuki explained while walking along a dirt road that passed through wooden dormitories, "Classes are usually all kept together in the same dormitory, in order to increase camaraderie. First years have their training camps set apart from the other classes, since if you fail we don't want you to know the way to execute certain techniques at all." He added carefully.

"Today you'll settle in and get a day of rest. Tomorrow you'll have your health examination and you'll be inserted in a class." As he finished explaining, he came in front of a large wooden door.

"This here is the director of the camp's bungalow: you want to quit at any moment, you pass through this door and speak to him about it. Otherwise, you'll see him again in this room at graduation." Those words said he opened the door to gesture them in. She entered first, soon followed by Taifuu who had apparently decided to stick to her like a shadow.

She actually didn't know whether he was considering her better than him or a convenient meat shield, although she was probably just trying to worm her way up the mirrors in order to avoid coming to the conclusion she dreaded: she was starting to consider him as a _friend_.

The office held little to no furniture. There was a desk, a set of cabinets filled to the brim with scrolls, a couple of shelves with books, and _buckets_ filled with paper. In all of this chaos sitting on the chair behind the desk, a desk that was perfectly empty and clean, was an elderly looking lady with a pair of bright purple glasses. She had a strange haircut that made her head resemble some sort of hornet's nest, with two hair sticks tied to her buns. Her eyes were a deep blue and she was wearing a traditional white yukata tied by a large green obi.

"Oh my, two new younglings coming to the nest?" She asked in the very same elderly voice one could expect from an old grandmother, the smothering type of grandmother. After the extremely scary experience however, she knew better than to start doubting whether or not the old lady was a powerful shinobi. She just started wondering when she'd place them in the dormitory, because she sure as hell wanted to get clean and fall asleep on a mattress.

She'd even take the floor if it was necessary.

"Mai-san here is the director of this particular first year training camp." Mizuki pointed out, before handing over a scroll to the old woman. Her lips covered in one of those dark purple lipsticks that are the delight of old grandmothers quirked for a moment before distending, as her eyes scanned the parchment. She then closed it carefully and threw it in one of the cabinet where it landed graciously.

"So Katsu-chan and Taifuu-chan, you passed the first part of the test," she said sweetly, "I'm sure you're really tired you poor dears." She added thoughtfully a moment later. "Let's get you settled alright?"

"Hai," she replied numbly. She was starting to feel sick because of all that sweetness lingering in the air. If that was what having a grandmother was about, then she'd gratuitously go without.

Her reply came at the same time as Taifuu's, and then they quietly waited for the woman to stand up and move through the buckets before finding the correct papers needed. Mizuki proceeded to hand them over for her, and then she read.

Not that she was expecting to understand half of it, but she was surprised when it all came pretty clearly. Well, it was made so that first years could deliberate on signing it or not. It was first of all a renounce on claiming that any damage incurred during the training would be the fault of the instructors, which was pretty much a default thing.

Secondly it instructed each participant in not revealing how they had been scrutinized, so that the new generations would have to go through the course without knowing that no, they weren't going to die. It also added things like general privacy policies, prohibition of sexual relationships for the duration of the training camp, promise of keeping oneself clean, kempt and groomed and generally various other things.

Taifuu had already signed his and handed it over by the time she actually finished reading it all and doing the same.

The elderly lady actually smiled kindly another time, before turning to address Mizuki.

"Mizu-chan, could you go and ask Taka-chan and Michi-chan if they do have a spare cot for our new kunoichi to be Katsu-chan and shinobi to be Tai-chan?"

_Konohagakure no Sato Training Camp Four – Taifuu Shimura_

"…Tai-chan?"

"_Tai-chan? You sleepy yet?" She giggled as he huffed. He wanted to sleep: she didn't._

"Hai, Mai-san." Mizuki's reply came with a curt nod of the shinobi, the instructor who had so graciously made his life and that of Katsu a living hell the day, before said man left quickly from the door. It was then that something ticked inside of his head. He turned quickly to stare at Katsu. The boy…no, the girl!?

"You're a girl!?" He blurted out without thinking. That was…well, he, no, she didn't have any chest visible. Then she didn't seem girly and she sure as hell wasn't wearing anything girly to begin with! Maybe the two or three inches thick of dirt on her body made it difficult to see, but she had a squared chin for the love of Kami! Well, not precisely squared, but still…

"Yes. I'm a girl." She answered back gritting her teeth.

"Oh my, Tai-chan didn't know that Katsu-chan was a girl?" The elderly grandmother's tone wasn't mocking. That was probably what made it so unnerving. He felt like the question _was_ meant to mock him, but at the same time he couldn't find anything in the tone that guaranteed it.

"I…No, well, yes…I mean…" He stammered, trying to find the correct words that would avoid him the ire of his…what, friend? Yeah. He had a friend! One who wasn't as old as his father too! He knew the old teammates of his father, and Koharu-bachan was his favorite aunt, but still he had never had a friend of his own age. His father lived at the very edge of the city and had it been for him, he'd have settled in a cave.

Katsu merely huffed while turning her head to the other side, her arms crossed in front of her chest. Mai merely giggled, as an elderly grandmother could, at the scene before shaking gently her head.

"Well, tomorrow morning there are the exams to be done to see if you're perfectly healthy or if you're coming up with something." The tone was laced with concern, just like it pained her to see them suffering like they were, or better yet, _had_. "Now, if only Mizu-chan was a bit quicker…"

Just as she said that, the door opened again. Strolling behind Mizuki were two other shinobis of Konohagakure. Well, one was a shinobi, the other was a kunoichi. The man had a pair of thick sun glasses on his face that strangely resembled the bottom of beer bottles tied together by a metallic string. His hair was frizzy and dark brown, standing up against gravity by an insane amount of gel probably, or glue. He was lean and was wearing the usual flak jacket of a Chuunin who's in active service. The jacket itself was torn a bit on the left side with claw marks, rendering useless said side's pockets. His forehead protector stood loosely knotted to his right arm.

The Kunoichi instead had short casket-like blond hair, pale blue eyes and a round face. She wasn't fat, but she certainly couldn't pass off as skinny: she was just a bit overweight. She too held the forehead protector on her arm, albeit she had it on the left one.

"Here are your charges," Mizuki commented drily, pointing at the two. "Mai-san, they both have room." He added, gesturing at the two that had walked behind him.

"Oh good! Well then Taka-chan takes Katsu-chan here," as she said that, she gently nodded with her head from the female chuunin to Katsu. "While you Michi-chan take Tai-chan here." She added, doing the same for him.

There were two quick nods, and then both chuunin instructors moved out after gesturing for them to follow. He scampered quickly to oblige, turning back his head just enough to make a quick bow to the old lady. His father had always been on the 'being polite' policy. Even with senile old women who had to add the –chan to everything.

He was at most Taifuu-kun, not 'Tai-chan'. Not even his father had ever called him that. No-one…no somebody had. A long time ago somebody had, much to his dismay, called him that.

"Well then. Name's Michiki, call me Michiki-sensei," the man said, starting to walk the opposite side of where Katsu and her instructor were going. For a moment, he thought she'd at least say goodbye to him, then again maybe they were in the same class, so they'd see each other again soon enough too. He waved to her, but if she saw him, she didn't act like she actually had because all she did was to merely nod back in a gruff way before leaving.

"Taifuu Shimura," he replied as he took in everything around them. There were training grounds where other kids like him were hitting wooden posts hard and sometimes till their knuckles began to bleed.

"I'm sure you're having questions. Let's get them out of the way swiftly then: you know the academy's terms are of three months each, right?" Michiki pointed out.

"Hai."

"Well, every week we have new students coming in. We do need to up the bar when it comes to unleashing our military potential, since the Land of Fire is pretty big and all. We have people coming in from any type of background: civilian, samurai, even sons and daughters of merchants. So it's a bit difficult to have an entrance ceremony, or classes that hold people with the same age. Basically each chuunin instructor gets thirty-three students. The first year is a mere pass or leave thing. The second and going upwards is instead a one third goes and two thirds remain behind. This helps in two way: we take the best of every class to form the new generation of shinobis, and those who remain behind eventually catch up." As he spoke, they were reaching one side of the camp that seemed to house small wooden booths and large cylinder shaped bathtubs. It was like being in an outdoor bath, only there were at least twenty to thirty different students in there. Naked.

"Yeah, if camp doesn't get you out of being prudish then nothing else does," Michiki drawled, "Anyway: your bags are in bungalow five, my class is 'Michiki-sensei's' one, and…" the man's eyes narrowed for a second, before a quick snapping sound similar to that of a whip being flung echoed through the air. The next moment a naked and still wet and soapy boy was in front of them, on attention.

"Good. This here is Totsuba. He's in my class too: came here a couple of days ago. Totsuba, this is Taifuu. Get him washed up and then off to Bungalow Five. Understood?"

"Yes sensei!" The boy snapped, keeping his military salute until the man had left. When he did, he relaxed notably, showing a smile to him.

"Well. I'm Totsuba Mareboshi, Toma for friends." He smiled before suddenly remembering he was naked, wet and soapy, out in the summer air.

"And you need to get washed up." The boy added before moving closer to the bathtubs. He hadn't seen it, but behind the big cylindrical tubs were smaller basins filled with water.

"First you scrub yourself off with the cold water. Then you enter the warm ones. You have a ten minutes time of soaking. Afterwards, dry off and go."

He had nodded without thinking. That proved to be a mistake, because Totsuba merely grinned, before replying.

"Well, well, so you have no problems walking around naked?"

"Huh?" He hadn't understood what the boy was referring to. Well, he'd just put on his…old clothes?

"Shinobi can't be prudish," Totsuba stated, shrugging slightly, "So you pile the dirty clothes and wash them in the small tubs afterwards. Then you empty the tub and fill it again with clean water. The well is at the center of the training camp. You're lucky we're in summer right now. You can keep the wet clothes on and they'll dry like nothing…but come the winter and it's going to be a different story."

He shivered slightly, but in the end decided to go with it and see what would happen.

Nobody appeared to say anything, as more children left and others arrived, all diligently getting to their work like they had been there for months before. Some obviously were a bit slower than others, and a couple looked around lost before deciding to mimic what others were doing. If they had all gone through what he had, then it was to be expected that they didn't seem all that cheerful or young at all.

He fought off the urge to remember that wretched scene, trying to concentrate on the feeling of the warm water. He didn't know when ten minutes would be over, so he just didn't stay more than a couple to be sure. As he got out, washed his clothes and then put them on, he grabbed an empty bucket and headed to the well.

Totsuba kind of stalked him along the way, before moving to walk alongside him.

"You know, first year is the best. We always do the same things, repeatedly. We climb trees, we climb ropes, we pass through obstacle courses and we run around the camp and so on. There's nothing else. No lessons or theory or anything like that."

"Always the same?" He queried. Well, when one thought about it, what else could they be doing in just three months? If first years arrived from everywhere and at any time, it was obvious they couldn't be doing stuff like history or algebra: they'd have to start again every time a new student came in.

Indeed, said like that the first year didn't appear to be anything even remotely difficult.

Bungalow five was, in one word, half a mess of tangled and asleep bodies and half an ensemble of neat and ordained beds yet to be touched. It was a mixture of surprise and shock that he found out that indeed, he _had_ luggage waiting for him in front of his bed. There were a grand total of at least fifty beds, windows near each of them with wooden panels to close them, and there even was a small chimney at the center of the room. The dead center of the bungalow, that is.

If the name on the tag wasn't of indication, than the contents clearly were. Books and various pairs of gym clothes, more than one pair of shoes and generally a lot more of stuff like bags and…was that toilet paper?

"Oh my, toilet paper, that's a commodity around here," Totsuba commented from his shoulder, "Your mom's a ninja too?"

"No…It's only me and my father," he replied quickly, realizing that indeed everyone who had even half an eye-lid open was staring at that mere coil of toilet paper like it was water in a desert. "Wait. If there's no toilet paper how do you…"

"Hands and leaves. There's an abundance of both. Just nick a bush while doing rounds around the camp." Another voice came in, half asleep. The boy next to him on the bed had his eyes half opened, and he was currently in the process of deciding whether or not to present himself when the opportunity was taken from him.

"This here is Okito, our resident dreamer." Totsuba pointed out, "They say he passed his admission because he kind of slept through it."

"New guy is with your teacher?" the boy queried, and at an affirmative nod from Totsuba, he yawned before standing up with a light groan. "Lucky him." He muttered.

"Get back to sleep Oki! We don't want the world to end tomorrow!" A voice commented from the back of the room.

"Yeah, yeah." The boy rolled his eyes, before rudely flipping the bird back. He was a slightly muscular kid with dark red hair and green eyes, but lacked the freckles typical of one with fair skin such as his. He was currently wearing a crumpled green shirt and a pair of short gym trousers.  
"I'm Taifuu." He decided to start with being polite and saying his name. They didn't appear at all like the other jerks he had met during the _initiation_, if one could call it like that.

"Pleasure to meet you." Okito yawned as he replied, "Anyway, you got what? The psycho sensei, the stress test, the 'we are lost in the forest' or the good old 'ambush every man for himself'?"

"It's not good old, it's _traumatic_." Totsuba snapped back drily.

"Huh?" What were they talking about? "Oh. You speaking about the first day? Well…I'd say it was Psycho-sensei."

"Well then, it appears the 'stress test' is now definitively the one with the least amount of survivors." Okito stated.

"Rub it in will ya!?" another voice muttered.

"Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?" Someone else snorted.

"Wake up princess, there's the new kid!" The chatter that soon increased in intensity was abruptly cut off when a guy near the door knocked twice on the windowsill. It was kind of bizarre how everyone quieted down immediately after that.

The door opened a moment later, as a chuunin instructor barged in.

"Team Katsuko, with me!" At that exclamation, Okito rolled his eyes before moving.

"See ya lot later," he muttered, heading outside together with a couple of other students. Soon the room was once more quiet.

"You better keep what you don't need in the bags," Totsuba remarked, "not that anyone here's a thief or anything, but there's a mess already as you can see." Pointing at the indeed messy half of the bungalow, "Trying to keep an appearance of tidiness won't kill you."

"Got it." He replied, "So…now what?"

"Now? You go to bed and sleep. Trust me, if it isn't training, the second thing you want to do is sleep. Read a book, relax a bit then hit the mattress like it was heaven…were I you I'd hid the toilet paper however. Some guys are outright delirious when it comes to that."

"If…If they need it, it's not a problem really." He replied hesitantly. Last thing he needed was people rummaging through his stuff. Albeit if half of them had gone through what he had, then he had no doubts that words like 'teammates' and 'comrade' were already engraved in their skulls. The lax way of keeping oneself furthermore seemed to be helpful.

He didn't feel tired, at first. He had just comfortably laid down on the bed, thinking that he'd change into a pajama if the need arised, when his hands went to the book on plants that had been in his backpack till then. He lazily began to open it, letting his eyes settle on the first page, the preface.

_Botanical Excerpt by Shimura Danzo. Diary of a plant researcher._

_Dedicated to Taifuu, who can't stop trying to get his hands on the grass: you can't eat everything that moves boy!_

"There we are. Initiation completed." Totsuba remarked with a light chuckle, as he turned to glance at the boy in question.

"What?" Was his voice actually cracked?

"Tears. You just realized you ain't going back home for a while, right? Happens to everyone the first night. Don't worry about it: you'll eventually reach the conclusion that it's not a big deal. You'll see your father soon enough if you work hard." Totsuba's reply came with a light grin, as he nodded back to him in answer.

"Arigatou." He whispered, before turning to the book at hand.

_Chapter one. First Entry._

_Plants are not merely green, as some might point out at first sight. Plants can be a variable amount of colors and forms. Lichens can, for example, be brownish in color if grown in dark caves. It is of fundamental importance to distinguish between plants that are harmless and plants that are harmful. From that simple division we must then distinguish between those that are comestible, those that are not, and those that are poisonous by digestion, by contact or by inhalation. Furthermore some plants can, if distilled, create brews and cocktails that have varied effects, ranging from hallucinogen proprieties all the way to clotting wounds and prevent death by blood loss…_

…_While eating grass is certainly not at first order of business, it isn't that it does not provide sustenance, as it is that humans are not genetically apt at taking nutrition from said plant…_

…_Mushrooms of the type…_

…_chapter two._

His eyes closed, and slept entombed him in the warm blanket that were dreams. The book felt warm against his chest, albeit the plastic foils and the hard leather cover made it uncomfortably heavy to read while laid down on his back against the mattress.

He was in the forest. The leaves were rustling against the wind and the flowers were gently cropping up in patches of green, yellow and red. The wind was gently howling and there was a figure dashing through the trees. He realized he was actually following the figure through flight. Like if he could fly really.

"Who are you!?" The voice snapped angrily. It was so scary, so strong and so…so angry.

"Why would I tell you?" The other one replied, "He's _mine_."

"Not in…"

Cold harsh water hit him on the face, nearly drowning him as he woke up with a startled gasp.

"Taifuu! Rise and shine: medical visit to do!" The man, his instructor or so it appeared, grinned at him.

"Michiki-sensei! That was a low blow." Totsuba pointed out.

"I did call his name, didn't I?" the instructor retorted, pushing his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose.

"You did that and at the _same time_ threw the water at him." The other boy drawled out. "You should wait a moment before doing that."

"It wouldn't be fun in that case," the sensei bickered back.

He decided to simply change his clothes with others, ever thankful that his father's book had been wrapped up in such a way as to make it water proof.

When he was done, he groaned at the sight of dark purple gym trousers and a clashing bright yellow shirt that he had ended up putting on.

"You know. A light green jacket with bright pink stripes would work wonders on that," Okito commented with his eyes half closed from the nearby bed, "That is, if you're planning on killing people with your fashion sense."

"Cut the boy some slack," Totsuba retorted, "He slept through all of yesterday. I'm starting to think he's so hungry he'd eat a cow."

He frowned at that, before his stomach gave way and began to growl.

"See? My point: how can he go to the Dreadful Dr. without eating?"

Michiki rolled his eyes, before raising both his hands in a sign of defeat.

"Fine! You can bring him to the dining hall."

_Konohagakure No Sato Training Camp Four – Katsu Uzuki_

She was sore. All of her muscles were cramping and she was feeling the need to spasm and lay on the ground in a pool of her own saliva from the pain. The other girls had been really understanding of her condition, considering one of them had helped her on her own feet that morning when their instructor had come by.

Takane-sensei seemed like a kind and gentle mother bear. Yet her appearance was deceiving to the point of being completely against her natural character. She was in truth a ruthless slave drive, and that much she had felt it under her skin when she had been woken up at two in the morning.

There were really few female ninjas around, and because of that Takane-sensei made it a point to make sure that the few that remained were at least competent. Although passing the initiation basically did mean that there were no weaklings around, it also meant that she could, and would, expect far more from those who stayed.

So, even though the director of the camp had given her the free day to rest, and the next morning to get checked by the doctor, she had begun training with the other girls as early as two o'clock in the morning was.

There was one thing though that made her perplexed. The boy's sides of the baths were out in the open, while the girls' were inside. The boys had to refill their baths with water from the well, and did so most of the time naked like the day they had been born. They instead had showers. While she had been flustered for a long while, and she was still even when thinking back to it, she had no idea why.

Strangely, it was a fellow student who answered her question while they were sitting down to have breakfast in the dining hall of the training camp.

"Well, men have to be men right? Bringing buckets of water around makes them stronger, and adjusting to cold temperature is easier too. I think it's also a mean for the instructors to see how they're faring with their muscle tones…kind of like why we hit the showers together with our instructors too. They keep on checking on us."

"But…they're going around naked!" She exclaimed back in a pipsqueak like voice.

"Yeah, and?" another student retorted on the other side of the table, "After a while you just stop being bothered about it, and that's precisely what they want to achieve."

"But…"

"Come on. It's not _that_ bad," the girl on her right piped in, "Unless of course you're flagging for the other side."

"What?" She queried puzzled. What were they…

"Cloistered girl?" The girl on her left pointed.

"I'm not cloistered!" She snapped. "I just…ehm…might have missed some things you were saying?"

The girl merely rolled her eyes back as a reply. She had light blue eyes and hazel hair tied in a short braid on the back of her head. Her frame was lean, and she was wearing a light green jacket with a pair of blue shorts. Beneath the jacket she had a dark brown shirt.

"I'm Fukuyo by the way." She commented, "We're in the same class, might as well get to know each other." She nibbled at her fish, before adding, "And I was saying that it isn't that bad to be looking at naked boys. Unless you're attracted to girls that is."

She merely looked lost at said declaration at least. She hoped she was doing her best to convey the feeling of being utterly lost. Somehow, she probably did show off that she had lost track of the discussion, because the girl on her left added in on the conversation.

"You know how babies are born, right?" At that question, she replied with ease.

"The stork right?"

"Waka: she's all yours." Fukuyo raised her hands in the air with a light chuckle escaping her lips. "Break her in would you?"

"Why do I have to? It was embarrassing already when I heard it from my mother! I'm _not_ going to repeat the experience!" The girl flustered back heavily. She had dark brown hair that fell into bangs on her forehead. Her brown eyes and pale complexion made her look like any other average girl on the street, if it weren't for the strange jigsaw scar she held on the right side of her face that went from her cheek to the base of her neck. She had only a light pink shirt on, with a strange and frilly picture of a rabbit.

"Please," the girl in front of her snorted, "You were just _begging_ for a chance to embarrass someone eventually. There, you got your pick." The hair was short. Like, cut short with a razor and just recently grown back to what looked like the height a doormat had. Considering the color was basically the same as those light brown doormats, the girl appeared more of a boy than even she could muster. At least her hair was shoulder-length purple. The girl had however the pair of most striking green eyes ever. It wasn't a light green or a jade-like one. It was the same color that leaves have, that dark green.

She was wearing a pair of fingerless gloves, and a fishnet shirt with but a brown jacket to cover the upper front. Not that there was anything to hide…there were very few developed girls around.

"And Benika's bluntness strikes again." Fukuyo stated, shaking her head, "You won't find yourself a boyfriend if you keep on acting like that."

"Like we have the _time_ to look for one: we've got to train and keep it up…I don't know you, but I didn't keep my gaze on a damn pot for three hours for nothing…" the remark got Waka to stifle a giggle.

"Well, I instead had to find my way out of the forest. You know, at night? With fear that we were being ambushed by enemy shinobis?" Fukuyo's reply came at the same time Waka suddenly exclaimed.

"Oh right! New girl! What was your _initiation_ like?"

She gulped down the rice that had been stuck in her mouth with a sip of water, her cheeks flushing lightly at the recollection, before finally deciding to give an abridged version.

"We…we walked into the forest till we reached a cave at night, then during the night we were woken up by surprise…one of the kids attacked another, so when sensei arrived at the scene he killed him in front of us, another ran away scared, and we were left in four…the other girls had already left beforehand." She quickly supplied, knowing just how much she sucked at giving stories, "then we reached for a small field just near here, and when the teacher asked us to get into the position of the cardinal points we complied, but Taifuu was a bit off, so I decided to follow his cue. It was morning and the sun had just risen, so he got in East while I was in Ovest in front of him…then sensei…he…" she closed her eyes for a moment. It hadn't been real. It wasn't real. Those kids were pretty much alive now, lamenting their loss and were back at home. Yeah, that was it.

"He began to chop off the corpses and we stayed there, sitting, while he did that in front of us. When he got to opening them up Taifuu retched and he kicked him. That's when he decided to fight him back. I don't know what took me, but I tried to pry the teacher off him and failed. So we were about to die and he asked us if we were really going to fight him. When we answered yes…he told us it was all a test." She whispered, shivering slightly, "I…I was so scared…"

"Psycho-sensei." Fukuyo nodded sagely to herself, "it's one of the scariest ones."

"That's because you haven't stared at a frigging tea-pot for three hours straight." Benika snapped back, before returning to stare with…anger at the clay cup. "I still don't like pottery you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, drama queen." Waka commented, "Well. Is that the guy that came with you?" She asked, pointing with her head at the line of people who were taking their 'grub' from the kitchen's aides. Taifuu was indeed there, and his eyes were hovering over the collected masses of kids with a sort of scared look.

She groaned. Was he sort of like the clingy type? The one that once it grew attached it didn't leave? What if, instead, he had gotten a crush on her? No. She shook her head. The boy had thought she was a boy to begin with! There was no way he'd have a crush on her. Maybe he just wanted to apologize, that was why he was getting closer to her.

"I've finished." Waka stated simply with a bright grin, as she got up and left while whistling. It took her a moment to understand what that meant. They weren't just…

"Hi!" Oh Kami, he _chirped_ that hello. How could he be so happy with all his muscles hurting?

"Hi." She grumbled back.

"Is the seat taken?" He queried, politely nodding with his head at the empty spot next to her. Wonderful: just plain wonderful.

"Oh no, not at all," Benika's smile grew slightly wide, "Are you Taifuu? We were just hearing of you and Katsu's test with your sensei." Taifuu did visibly darken at the mention, before sitting down and trying to get a calm face on.

"Oh yeah, it was one hell of a scary thing 'ttebayo." He muttered, before suddenly pinching his right cheek until he got a light whine out of his throat.

As the others looked at him with perplexity, curiosity, and a mixture of worry if he was mad, she was on the other hand trying to decide whether she could excuse herself quickly or not by gorging herself on food.

"It's a verbal tic of mine…my father tried to get me to stop using it, but it pops up when I'm nervous." He sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he said that. "Oh, by the way. I wanted to apologize." He added carefully looking at her.

She merely arched an eyebrow, before nodding slowly.

"Apology accepted." She froze for a moment afterwards.

"_I didn't mean to break it!" she had cried failing to hold back her tears at the mess that was the fallen plant vase._

"_Apology accepted." She had replied._

She shook her head. It was just the correct way of accepting an apology, right?

Still, from there the tension diminished and small chatter was able to come around. Even though she had no idea why the boy insisted so much on shadowing her, at least she could feel slightly more at ease with the fact that he appeared to be relatively normal. _Especially_ when compared to some of the other girls.

_**And yet the bell rings for all, and time of mirth leaves the place to agony.**_

**Author's notes**

**Another chapter.**

'**Massive' OC's insertion. This is principally the reason I hate OC's: I have to create something that makes each of them unique without going so far as to make them all strangely horrific 'Mary Sues'. I can't exceed there quirks because they're 'normal' and at the same time I can't make them boring. I'd have used the Konoha Eleven without thinking twice 'IF' I hadn't wanted to make it pretty clear that things were going to go differently.**

**Yeah. Taifuu **_**is**_** Naruto, the Heritage they share is the same albeit obviously someone went to great lengths to hide it. Now, on Katsu being Tsunade and Jiraiya's we still have to see it through, alright? **

**A little bit of word on this world's Academy.**

**First off, consider if you please the image of Konoha as seen on the chapter of Pain's invasion. Now, if Konoha were truly a village, then having but 11 graduates a YEAR would make sense. (11 out of thirty-three, the twenty-two lost go back and repeat the year) This is obviously if Kakashi's words make sense.**

**However Konoha is pretty much a bustling city (Just look at the picture, it's big alright?) so the number of graduates of a hidden village 'must' be great. The land of fire is the biggest one. What if someone outside the village can mold chakra? Would they lose the potential? Answer: they would not. That why it's highly possible for 'training camps' to exist outside of Konoha proper. **

**Now, on shinobi and keeping secrets: the first year of academy is basically coming up with a body tough enough to handle the pressure of exercises, and a mind that doesn't crack under high strain. If you have those, then the rest can easily be caught up. If you don't then there's no point in keeping you around. **

**Since terms are of three months instead of a year, the 'Naruto failed three times yet graduates together with peers of age' makes strangely sense, doesn't it? But I couldn't keep that without increasing the age when children come in.**

**Thus I did both. And I made it quirkier.**

**For the 'nudity' part…it makes sense. No really, shinobi shouldn't be hassled by things like that when fighting, and many times (avoiding Kishimoto's way of delivering fan service) Kunoichi 'were' dressed skimpily. Meaning that if a weapon exists then the means to defeat said weapon exist too. **

**Now, I know many of you are kind-of-frothing querying to themselves 'heck, is this going to be OC only teams?' the answer is no. There will be a 're-merging' with canon timeline **_**eventually**_**. But I need to give them both a new start, in order to make the contrast a **_**lot**_** more obvious.**

"**What contrast?"**

"**You can either guess it or wait for it."**

**That's all for this chapter, read and review if you want to .**


	3. Corpse's stench

The Twisted Reality 3

_**And yet the bell rings for all, and time of mirth leaves the place to agony.**_

_Konohagakure no Sato Training Camp Four – Taifuu Shimura_

The medic of the training camp was a young black haired woman. She was sporting a dark red bandana over her forehead, and her milky white eyes gave away her Hyuga lineage. She looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and a light smile, trying to maybe look both accommodating and less frightening. She was obviously failing miserably, considering the giant half-moon bladed scythe that was hanging from the wall behind her.

She was wearing a formal white kimono with a black obi, and her black hair was tied in a long braid. On her desk were photograms, probably of her family if she had any, or maybe of people she cherished. The room held eight small beds all with paper thin dividers.

Maybe it was the smile that came out creepy that had given the woman the nickname of Dreadful Doctor; that, or the giant moon-bladed scythe. Probably it was the smile, at least in his meager opinion. The tag on her kimono gave him her name: Dr. Sadaka Konishiro.

"Come sit here." She gently patted on a free bed, her white eyes bulging with thick veins. She did look kind of scary with veins popping up from her sides. It took him a moment to nod quickly and get on the bed, all the while looking hesitantly at the woman's eyes.

"Don't worry. I'm just looking at your chakra pathways." She commented simply, "They're quite expanded." She scribbled something down on a pad next to her, before querying.

"You are Taifuu Shimura, son of Danzo Shimura. Is that correct?" She queried, in that sort of mechanical yet not too cold tone.

He nodded, not trusting his voice to come out as a squeak. The woman was _scary_. Not in the 'I'm going to chop you off' type of things, but more on the 'if I snap I'm going to kill you all' thing: the dangerous and silent type.

"Do you have any notable physical deficiency, malformation of limbs, or any type of genetical flaws I should be informed of?" She queried once more, her white eyes scanning his entire body.

"What was that?" He asked back, not understanding a single word the doctor said.

"Are you usually short on breath? Do you have one less rib? Did your father tell you that your family is prone to heart diseases or similar events that can be passed down through genetics?"

"Ehm…No. I don't think so…and I can't recall Otou-san saying anything like that." He quickly added in hope that she wasn't going to snap and kill him for being so unable to _cooperate_.

The woman merely clicked with her tongue once, before moving to the side of her desk. She took out from within a drawer syringes and small empty vials, all wrapped up in small plastic papers; probably to keep them from getting dirty.

It was then that he gulped down nervously once more.

"Are those…necessary?" He queried with a bit of worry. Well, at least he thought he was putting only a bit of worry in his voice: truly he might have just as well started to shiver from it.

"They are." She replied back without as much as a second of hesitation. No comforting words either were uttered as she sat back down on her stool next to his bed, motioning for him to roll up his sleeve. Quietly, he did his best to keep a cool façade, as the needle drove into his skin. It didn't quite hurt, but the mental image of pain was more than enough to make his skin have goose bumps.

A brief moment later and the blood dripped within the vials. The red liquid slowly dribbled and pooled, until it stopped. At half vial, the blood stopped descending, puzzling the Doctor as a light frown appeared on her face.

She removed the syringe, looking at it with a scrupulous gaze before reinserting it inside. The blood began to trickle down once more. Then it stopped _again_. Perplexed, but not abated, the woman merely removed the syringe a second time, activating her Byakugan as she carefully looked at it again.

Then this time she plunged it in his arm once more. The blood flowed quite a bit faster than before, filling up the other vials in little to no time albeit the burning sensation that he was feeling in his arm had steadily been growing.

"Curious." She muttered, as she scribbled down once more on the paper that was on her wooden pad. "Do you know who your mother is?" She asked, only for him to avert his gaze on the ground.

"No." He whispered back, "Otou-san never spoke of her."

"It might be that you possess a sort of highly clotting blood. Whether a Kekkei Genkai or not is feasible is yet to be ascertained." The Doctor then proceeded to grab a really cold stethoscope, at least in his opinion, and place it under his shirt. "Take deep breaths."

The examination was over five minutes later, and to him, it was five minutes too much. The moment he left the room, leaving the spot to Katsu, he smiled at the girl cheerfully conveying his 'do your best' with but his face. That was until Michiki-sensei gestured for him to move and follow him.

Totsuba was just behind their sensei, and he already appeared to be sweating. He did however sport a bright smile as he questioned.

"Nothing's wrong with you, right?" He was wearing a grey combination of clothes: a grey short sleeved shirt, a grey pair of shorts and a grey bandana over his head.

"She said nothing about it." He replied with a light smile, "Man was she scary."

"Dreadful Doctor indeed." Michiki pointed out, "Anyway! My dear darling students, it is time we begin!" He clapped his hands a moment later, sporting a happy grin.

He looked at his sensei with a perplexed expression, before looking at Totsuba and then behind him, or for what it mattered around them. They were the only two under his guide?

"It's only us?" He blurted out without thinking. Only to bite on his tongue a moment later, since the man's grin simply widened.

"Yes indeed! I've got but two young ducklings that will now start running around camp! Hop you go!" The sensei clapped his hands once more, and with that both he and Totsuba began to run.

He was following the slightly older teen, probably a month or two considering the height difference, around the normal jogging outline. No words were spoken, probably as a reminder of just how much breath was important to be kept regulated, or maybe because ninja simply do not rant or speak or yell while doing things.

The laps were precisely just like Okito had told him the day before: boring. He kind of understood the boy's perspective. It was just that running around the inner ring of the camp, and then the outer, and then again the inner and repeating the motion time and time again was just that: boring. There was sweat obviously, but nothing more. They were being trained physically, and it was basically doing exercises until they half dropped dead. Not much thinking around, only to see if they were fit with their bodies.

The number of laps wasn't fixed at all, as Totsuba didn't appear to be slowing down any time soon, and his eyes too were half-way dead from boredom, if not outright daydreaming, as they proceeded through the motion one more time.

Finally, maybe after ten or eleven laps, their instructor clapped his hands once more, appearing right next to them.

"Now off to climbing trees!" The cheerful tone of the man was a bit out of its place, but it didn't quite matter. He knew how to climb trees. His father had a garden with a big one, all cranky and admittedly old with twisted branches. He merely followed Totsuba in eerily silence as they left the camp and headed towards the nearest set of trees.  
Obviously it wasn't like there was an easier type of tree or a more difficult one, but all had their lower branches cut off at different heights. Kind of like showcasing the different possible difficulties in climbing a bark that was either smooth or irregular.

He hesitated for a moment, before starting off with the easiest tree that had branches at his very head level. Pushing himself upwards, he nimbly moved from branch to branch implicitly thinking that they had to reach the top of the tree before coming down. His hand gripped upon the crude tree bark with the uneven surface helping him up, even though some splinters tried to nick at his thumbs. The callous skin of the lower part of his fingertips helped him in that regard.

Sometimes, his father had outright called him 'Saru', considering how nimble he was in climbing up trees. It didn't take him much to start seeing beyond the thick top of the other trees, and once settled on the very last branch, the scenery in front of him turned out to be breathtaking.

The sun rising to full strength over the mass of green sea that was the lush forest of the land of fire's most common type of terrain gave way to flickers the color of emerald. Throughout the sun's glares he could feel the heat against his skin, as well as the birds' chirping all around him. The forest's treetops were pushed lazily by the strength of the wind, and the noises of the camp came muffled from such a high spot. He could see all around him for miles, and what he saw took his eyes away for a moment to gaze. To gaze and to keep in memory, at least before a light cough got him back to the moment.

"I'd stare less and go up and down more," Totsuba pointed out, hanging from a nearby treetop, "Beautiful scenery, but seen it once? Seen it always."

"Hai." He murmured back, letting his cerulean eyes settle for one last time on the _world_ ahead of him before descending back to the ground. How would it be, to fly in the air like a bird? Free of troubles and problems?

Would he still miss the earth, if he were to do so? As he mentally queried that, he slowly descended back down towards the ground. The unforgiving ground where he had to keep his feet on the earth and run and do laps…but right now, right there and then, he _swore_ to himself: he'd go back up again, just to watch the scenery once more.

That promise he actually kept with ease, considering how he managed to climb also the second tree. Said plant had been trimmed of some of its branches, making the climbing up a bit more difficult, but not by much. The second time, the sun was already higher. Yet something nudged at the back of his mind that it just wasn't the same thing.

"What did I tell you?" Totsuba commented, having climbed again another tree, "Seen once…seen always."

He didn't reply to that reiterated statement, instead closing his eyes for a moment. The air gently nuzzled at his face, before he opened his eyes again. There it was once more, the breathtaking view.

"That's just because you have to _look_ at what you're seeing Toma, not just _compare_ the two views." He replied quietly, before starting a low descent. He did however hear Totsuba's reply, coming in a murmur.

"Comparing? They're the same stuff! You can't compare identical things…except twins. Even then, it's…" The rest of the words were drowned by him descending the tree with more care. Climbing up, he could manage with small jumps every now and then to work his way around a missing branch. Descending however was trickier.

He had to be extremely careful not to slip and fall down the remaining distance. He took a deep breath at a particular wide gap in the vegetation, and then he jumped down.

"_Jump! I'm here!" _

"_No!"_

His right hand slipped from making contact with the branch, and as he could see the ground coming closer and closer by the second, he panicked. His arms moved to protect his face, as the air batted against his body while gravity did its work. He gritted his teeth and braced himself for the impact, but it did not come as expected.

Somehow he was pulled to the side, founding himself rolling on the ground while being held within two strong pair of arms.

"_You crybaby. See? Everything's fine."_

He hesitantly opened one eye, and then the other. The first thing he saw was the typical green of a chuunin's flak jacket, a known one at that too. It was pretty distinctive, considering the torn left side. Michiki-sensei had apparently jumped in to save him from falling, and had somehow managed to deaden the blow from the impact.

"Got you!" The man exclaimed, slowly getting back on his feet while looking at him attentively for signs of wounds or scratches, "And you're all in one piece too!"

"Sensei!" Totsuba descended a few minutes afterwards, albeit he did take his time to avoid falling down too, "Is Taifuu alright?"

"He's as fine as fine can go!" With those words, the man patted him one last time on the head. He seemed to find it nice, because he kept rummaging through his hair for a moment. "I wouldn't believe it otherwise: you've got leaves everywhere! Ever thought of cutting your hair short?" The chuunin added, as a handful of leaves found its way out of his raven hair and on the ground.

He merely shook his head, whining pitifully at the teacher's smothering. The fact that Totsuba was grinning ear to ear only meant that this was a probably common thing, albeit he couldn't quite actually place it as such.

Only his father had ever touched his hair beforehand, and now it was already two people!

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

She was healthy alright. If the push-ups she was currently doing together with the rest of her class were of any indication, she was probably the healthiest one. It wasn't that the other girls were slacking either: nobody slacked with Takane-sensei. Or Takane-sama the _slaver_, as some of the girls called her. On one side she could understand the ruthless means to achieve the desired level, but on the other her arms' muscles were pleading her to enter the plan of the other students to murder the woman in her sleep.

Not that she'd manage it or any of the other girls. If being a Chuunin was of any indication, she probably had really light sleep and no academy student of the first year would ever manage to get one up on her. Still, they could dream about doing it. It was cathartic to dream about doing something right? It helped with stress related problems.

Her muscles burned fiercely as the instructor kept on barking the number of push-ups they were at. Some of the older girls of the sensei's class were far quicker than others in obeying, at the same time the youngest ones, her included, were already tiring out.

"Well? Is that all?" The instructor queried to someone behind her. "Still stuck at seventy-nine cadet?" Takane-sensei never used their names while calling on them, the chuunin-sensei didn't believe them worthy of being called by name until they graduated and became fellow kunoichi of the leaf; especially if the dream of many of them was something as stupid as finding a strong shinobi to marry and retire by becoming a housewife.

That did mean that her sensei's ideals and her own were completely different, but at the same time she wasn't as stupid as to try and claim her own dreams out loud. Nobody spoke out of line with Takane-sensei. Nobody was that _foolish_.

"I believe that self-improvement is the key to a successful ninja. Isn't that right class?" the instructor didn't wait for the girl to answer her back, and as one the class replied quickly.

"Hai, Takane-sensei!"

"So, you see…" The Chuunin trailed off, "I can't have a weak link in my class. Do you want to improve or not, cadet?"

"H…Hai, Takane-sensei." The voice was meek, and yet there was a sharp yelp at the same time as the sound of something hitting against something else. She couldn't see it well, but she knew what being kicked on the sides meant. She knew what that sound was.

"Speak like you mean it cadet!" The sharp yell came once more, and the voice wavered for a bit, before the reply came through.

"Hai Takane-sensei!"

"Good, then get back in line!" A moment later, the sensei barked, "Now get doing the Eightieth one cadet!"

There was silence for a moment, before the amused snort of Takane-sensei echoed through the clearing.

"Good! Now everyone, Eighty-one!"

"Hai Takane-sensei!" They all chorused, moving once more through the motion. She had barely thought she could up to fifty, once. When you're tightly packed with others, with the burning desire not to fail however, it appeared that her body could muster eighty-one. At least, that was until her muscles finally decided to get their own rest, and blocked themselves. She fell on the ground with a light yelp of pain.

She groaned trying to get back up, but her arms were trembling from the effort, and she truly couldn't muster it. She didn't even know if she'd get to the eighty-two even if kicked on the side.

"Well cadet, it appears someone needs to strengthen their arms." Now the instructor was right next to her, eying her with a critical eye. "You're dismissed for the day. Put your arms in warm water and get someone to massage them. Lactic acid is a bitch when it settles in."

"Hai Takane-sensei!" She yelled quickly as she wobbled back up on her legs. She had been left to go? Maybe her sensei wasn't all that of a bastard as the other girls portrayed her.

"Tomorrow you'll be doing double laps." No, she really was a bastard in kunoichi skin.

"Hai sensei!" With that exclamation, she quickly hit the showers. The warm water was something that made her nearly moan in pleasure, and as she lay there with her head taking in the water she relaxed.

The door of the showers' bungalow was opened once more and as the noise of feet echoed through the room she slowly turned around to see just who had entered.

It was Waka out of all people. With a heartfelt sigh of relief, she didn't bother the girl any longer, taking care to wash her hair thoroughly. She should have cut it already, but she didn't know who to ask. Maybe the scarred girl could actually help her?

"Neh Waka?" She inquired, gathering the girl's attention who had been in the process of slipping out of her own clothes.

"Oh! Didn't see you there Katsu! Sorry, I would have greeted you otherwise." The girl replied meekly, as she got under a nearby shower.

"Not a problem…ehm…you were cut short too?" She queried only for the girl to send her back a puzzled look. "I mean, the sensei let you go before the others?"

"Ah. No." The other girl shook her head making a little smile, "Every sensei decides how much a class trains and for how long. Each sensei can't have more than thirty-three students, so…if another class if just then filling up you tend to stay alone for a while."

She furrowed her brows at that. Hadn't she arrived after Waka? Shouldn't she thus be in the same class as her if she was alone? That's when she realized that maybe they tended to fill the classes as they went by. With people graduating practically once every three months, but coming at any time and period, some classes had holes that had to be filled. Probably she had filled such a hole while Waka had remained alone. Could she maybe get a transfer?

She didn't think it was possible, and for what then, Takane-sensei doing her job?

"I don't know how to ask…do you have a pair of scissors?" At that question Waka flinched slightly, it was quite visible at how her mood darkened slightly. Her eyes lowered to the sight of the shower, as the water began to pour down on her.

"Why?"

"I…I kind of wanted to cut my hair short…I can't keep it up long as it is, and so…"

Her eyes settled on the side of Waka's cheek, where the jigsaw scar was carved. It was then that she realized that maybe she had hit a sore spot, at least with the girl in question.

"I'm sorry!" She blurted out immediately, catching the girl's attention as she did that, "I didn't think it was related…I'm sorry, really. Sorry." She hastily made a couple of bowing gestures with her head, only for the other girl to stifle a giggle.

"It's alright Katsu-chan, can I call you that?" As she hastily nodded in reply, Waka added, "It's not a big deal, really. I'll be happy to help you cut down your hair."

"I…thank you!" she replied with a smile.

She washed and dried herself with the towel, before moving to the corner where she would wash her clothes. As she did that, Waka quietly moved behind her, and then…both of her hands pressed against her chest from behind.

"Touch…hey. There's nothing here." The other girl muttered, "How the hell can I make you flustered if you don't have things I can grab?" Waka amusingly sung as she gave her a cocky grin with her bright white teeth. She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks without much of a problem, and as she brought both hands to her chest, she couldn't help but let out a startled cry.

"Waka-chan!" She nearly cried, "Stop it! It's embarrassing!"

"Aw…a Kawaii flustered Katsu-chan," the girl cooed back, "Now, now." The other student murmured patting her head, "Don't get red like a tomato. I still haven't told you how babies are born!"

She caught her breath quickly enough to turn around like a snap and finish washing her clothes, before hastening to put them on. Even if wet and having done a quick job at it her clothes weren't soapy. She had washed her own clothes for years after all, so it came to her with ease.

"Aw…Already done? Fine! See you at the bungalow then! I'll cut your hair and tell you all there is to know about the _talk_!" Waka jokingly whined before turning swiftly to get some more hot water on her skin. She didn't fret as she left the shower room…well, at least in her opinion she wasn't fretting out of there.

She knew she was feeling humiliated however. So what if she was as flat as a table's surface? So what if she looked like a boy? She just didn't want to try and look cute, that was all! It wasn't like she couldn't turn out to be a totally hot babe if she wanted to. And there was still room for her to grow into: it wasn't like she'd remain a Chibi all her life. She hoped.

She truly, sincerely, _hoped_ that.

It was with a slight mixture of worry that she reached the bungalow, sitting down on her bed. Her two bags were resting at the foot of her bed, and looking through them she was kind of glad there was a purple shirt she could put on instead of the wet one she had washed just recently.

It was then that she realized that the shirt was half purple and half yellow.

The purple dye, held in a glass bottle, had probably broken when she had so-not-delicately made the bag fall down on the ground. The result was that the lower half of her bag was purple, the bag that held most of her set of shirts and toothbrush and the likes.

So she now had a purple toothbrush. She barely tolerated purple for her hair…and now she had eye-sores of half-purple and half something else as clothes.

She groaned as she let her head touch the mattress. They hadn't been given pillows, probably to avoid people trying to suffocate one another or to break them. Instead the mattress was pretty much comfortable. Even better than the one she had at home to say the least.

Her arms hung limply at her sides. Was there really nothing else to do except train and sleep at camp? Maybe she should have brought a book. Thinking of books brought her to remember that there was a boy who had a book: Taifuu. Maybe she could ask him for the book, if he wasn't keen on reading it. It was then that she found herself drifting over the boy in question.

He appeared to be a cheerful sort of guy. Maybe under different circumstances they could have been really friends. However she knew that type of guy. She had seen it in his eyes when he had fought back the instructor. He was the guy who doesn't drop down and who has a thirst for greatness: a dreamer of dreams unachievable to the likes of _them_.

It wasn't that she was pessimistic about him. It was only that she knew all too well how dreams can be easily shattered. It takes but a single bottle of sake, a drunken caretaker over love problems and a bout of anger from said Anbu class caretaker to shatter any hopes that she might have been something more than a simple extra check.

She _knew_ those eyes, burning with passion. Eventually they'd die when their passion would become unattainable. Eventually they'd become haunted, dark, void. Eventually time would kill the dreams, and then the _dreamer_.

She heard the door open, and she saw Waka enter the bungalow. She could be friends with the girl. She might have hidden it well under her cheerful personality, but she too was clearly hiding just how broken she was. She knew those eyes _after all_. She looked at them every time she woke up and stared at a mirror _after all_.

The eyes of an unwanted person who is running away from reality have that dark undertone just behind their irises, in a spot where only the other broken ones can see: a spot that those who walk without a care in the world have never seen nor will ever see. A spot that doesn't exist, yet it _does_.

"Time for a haircut and a little talk!" Waka giggled, as she winced slightly when she grabbed a pair of scissor from her own bag.

_Konohagakure no Sato Training Camp Four– Taifuu Shimura_

He had been dozing off in his bed after an entire morning of running and climbing trees when Okito came in through the door. He knew it had to be the boy in question because he had his very own distinctive pattern of saying hello. First off, he'd walk straight towards the border of his bed, then he'd merely let gravity do its job and bring him with his face straight against the mattress' surface.

Then, with a muffled tone he would mutter something like 'Hello', and depending on the pitch of said hello he'd either be willingly to ignore even an apocalypse coming right through the window or he'd be up to talk.

The Hello of this time was a: 'I'm tired, but I can spare a few seconds of my precious time to indulge yourself in small talk'.

It had to be some sort of special ability, because nearly everyone perfectly understood what the boy tried to communicate with his muffles. His sensei was a sadistic bastard, giving to him and the rest of his class eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, then once more eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work and so on. Meaning that sometimes they even trained at night, but fairly speaking, it wasn't even the worst it could have happened to them.

Okito was a _seraphic_ individual, a day-dreamer. He didn't know what seraphic meant, but Totsuba had been kind enough to explain that it described those types of guys who go about with ease and tranquility in life unless something major forces them to change course.

"Was it the laps?" He queried with a curious tone, looking at the boy that merely grunted an affirmative reply.

"Aren't those your favorites?" He asked once more, only to receive a pretty one-worded reply.

"Obstacles."

"Oh." With that mere comment his nose drove back to his book. He had no idea what sorts of obstacles Okito had faced, but considering their training camp's regime and method, it could be either something extremely scary or something extremely difficult.

All in all however…everything was _boring_. He was just glad he had more than enough books to last him the following months, because otherwise he'd turn mad. His thoughts actually drifted to Katsu, while he turned yet one more page of his father's written diary, later publicized as a book on plants. Was she faring any better than him?

She probably was: she had the guts to charge in on a psychotic instructor just to try and save him…that had to count for something after all, right?

The low snoring of Okito soon reached his ears, indicating that his bed neighbor had fallen asleep, still clothed. Truly nobody changed in their pajamas in the bungalows. It was mostly because the instructors were those who decided the timetables and the hours of work out. If they wanted to, they could wake them up at two in the morning or at noon. Training could be during dinner or in the rain either, because it didn't matter. The instructors ordered and they obeyed.

Five minutes later, he had already begun the process of gently closing his eyes when the sentinel of the bungalow tapped once more against the windowsill. The sentinel was a boy called Chikao. His light brown hair was buzzed short, and he usually wore a black shirt with a pair of light beige pants. His eyes were a dark brown color and he had kind of named himself the sentinel of the bungalow. He tapped on the wooden surface of the window when someone came in, alerting the others to get 'presentable'.

It had saved a lot of lives.

He kept his eyes slightly open, not willing to fall asleep before having seen who was coming in. It could have been his instructor; that the case he'd have to wake up the already drooling asleep Totsuba. Naps before dinner were common, also because training after dinner was even more at the order of the day.

A purple haired girl carefully opened the door of the bungalow, her amber eyes looking around with a bit of hesitation. It didn't take him much to recognize her as Katsu.

Well, she now did have shorter hair, which made her look even more like a boy, but nevertheless the color of her eyes _was_ her redeeming feature.

He hastily got up from his bed, just before Chikao could actually ask the girl who she was looking for.

"Katsu-chan!" He grinned at her with his best smile, "You need something?" He added, moving closer to her.

"Lovebirds." Chikao deadpanned, before returning his gaze out of the window. It wasn't a mock tone. It wasn't a cheerful tone. It certainly wasn't an ironic one. Chikao stated things with his monotonous tone that would have made him the perfect teacher: the one that sends the class into a coma from boredom.

The purple haired girl repressed a growl in her throat, but he heard it all the same. Her eyes fixated for a moment on the boy, before returning to stare at his.

"Ehm…Taifuu-kun?" She asked, "Can we speak outside for a bit?" The fact that she was nervous made it all the more problematic. Was she embarrassed of something?

"Stares." Chikao butted in, pointing to the rest of the bungalow. Where obviously the other boys had woken up to, precisely, stare at the scene.

"Oh. Right! Let's go!" He exclaimed, sending his best imitation of a death glare to the others who merely chuckled, grinned or made thumb ups back at him. Okito kind of made a reverse-thumb up from his prone position, even in his sleep he still held a sort of spatial awareness for potentially embarrassing situation.

He exited the bungalow second, as Katsu had practically burst out of the door with unnatural quickness. She appeared slightly flustered too, and she was kind of fidgeting. Her shirt appeared a mixture of yellow and blotched purple, probably some sort of strange new fashion style.

"I…I don't know how to say this but," she began hesitantly. Oh, maybe she wanted to _confess_ to him? Wait. What was he going to do? He had skimmed over the paper they had made him sign, but he was pretty sure there was a no relationship clause in there. He was sure of it! And…

"Could you lend me a book to read?" He smiled at that question. He _smiled_, nodded, and murmured.

"Just a moment." He was back inside and outside with a book by the title _Konohagakure law system_ in less than two minutes_._ He was _smiling_ sincerely as he pressed the book on her hands, with _positive_ _mirth_. At least, he hoped his facial motions were coming out as _positive mirth_ and not as creepy stalker-like.

Obviously, what did he expect? Love at first sight? That was utterly impossible. Still, it was a good thing. He certainly wasn't heartbroken, and things would certainly progress positively fluently from there on out: with no misunderstandings in the way or things like that.

"Thank you?" She actually queried the thanks: probably she didn't expect him to be so fast in indulging her. Maybe she was actually revaluating the all thing? But then again why did it matter to him!? He would have mentally kicked himself in the head as he stood there numbly nodding back to her as the girl left.

"Idiot." The comment came from Chikao, obviously. The boy had probably seen the entire scene from the window and was precisely now stating the general thoughts he was having around his head.

"There are still thousands of fish in the sea." Totsuba pointed out, having decided that between sleeping or grating his nerves the second was probably better. "And I'm sure you can do better."

"Positively affirmed." Chikao noted once more with a light nod.

"Hey! I wasn't dumped! I wasn't even in a relation to begin with!" He hastily snapped back, flailing his arms in front of him. "She just came to ask me for a book to read! She must have been bored or something."

"Book on laws makes for boring literature." Chikao commented once more. "Truly deathly."

"I'm aghast." Totsuba remarked drily, "Thee beseeched such prideful art for thee flower?" The fact that he was raising his right hand in the hair in a sort of stuck-up nobleman's pose made the thing positively humorous for the others and extremely embarrassing for him.

"No! She's just a friend!" He quickly corrected the other boy. "We did the psycho-sensei test together, that's all!"

"Alas thy love was not destined to bloom! Oh cruel fates that thou hand down said wicked agony of soul rending matter."

He looked at the other boy with an expression that was between the confused and the shocked. He understood half of the words, but the other half came from really old language.

"Totsuba. I'm trying to sleep." Okito muttered from his position in the bed, "If I wanted to hear verses, I'd go to a theater."

"Fine." The boy muttered back rolling his eyes, "Barbarian." He then snorted and pushed his chin upwards to the right side, striking yet another 'nobleman' pose. At that final pose, he chuckled.

Just like he did too: sure, maybe they were all a bit strange, quirky, and bizarre, but they weren't bad people. He just hoped they'd all pass the following years. How fun would it be to be on the same team all together?

The days quickly grew boring. Sure, the exercises became increasingly more difficult and complicated, and sometimes he had more than once winced for sore muscles, but never had he felt outright pain the following day. For him, going to sleep meant waking up fine, or still a bit sleepy if he had particularly overexerted himself the day before.

He had actually lost track of time, until it was mentioned that Totsuba would be leaving the next day. He had sat down on the edge of the bed patiently waiting for the sleep to kick in, when Michiki-sensei had barged in few minutes later eliciting a groan from him.

Okito had finished two days prior, and had merely muttered that they'd see each other next year back in Konoha, or at the public dormitory in the city, if he ever wanted to come by. He had never pried on the sleeping boy's past, since it was some sort of unspoken rule that if one didn't want to, then one shouldn't be forced to reveal it. After all they had all signed to become shinobi, thieves and murderers for hire…it didn't take much to come to term with the fact that motivations could be wide, varied and some worse than others.

"So tomorrow is Totsuba-kun's big day!" The man cheerfully clapped his hand as the boy groaned, "How excited is he to go through the grinder once more?"

The grinder. Michiki-sensei's experiment on sarcasm. It actually didn't grind you, no. It was an obstacle course that involved jumping from treetop to treetop, descending the tree and then running through obstacles to climb yet another tree, before jumping from said tree towards one last one. Finally, one had to descend the last tree, run across a rope bridge settled halfway submerged by the river and then swim the way back repeating of course the entire thing in the opposite way.

Doing it once was a hassle. Doing it twice was the grinder.

"Emotional." The boy had commented back. The course was harsh, but feasible. Heck, they all had already done it before hand more than once! If that was all the graduation was about, then he'd have no problems passing it with flying colors.

He had to pass it. His would come two days later, so he had two extra days to train for it.

That was when he realized something. Three months had already passed.

At first, he had been excited about it, really. He had dreaded the first term, because it could have brought him out of the program altogether and yet…yet now he felt at ease. He was even a bit saddened that eventually this would end, and he'd be on the next term.

A term where one third of the classroom would advance and the others wouldn't.

Would they still be going to training camps? If so, then where? Would they end up further away? What would they learn that would force them to swear on silence? Would they finally learn Jutsus, techniques, Taijutsu moves?

But that was in two days. Till then, he eyed suspiciously the brief exchange of nonchalant chatting that the instructor was having with Totsuba.

"In any event, there will be no need to come back and get your bags. Just have them packed and they'll be sent back home either way." The instructor commented, "Same for you too Taifuu." The man's voice was strangely terse, but it lasted only a second, "Now, as a reminder: I'd like you all to keep your head cool. Many have failed the exam because they stressed out the night before. Just keep doing as you did during the previous days, and everything _will_ be fine. Understood?"

Totsuba had understood enough. Truly the next day his luggage was no longer there; he had left on the very same day of the graduation, all without even saying goodbye to him. The only thing that kept him going was that he and Katsu would be having the test on the same day, so probably they'd leave together. If she passed hers…which she certainly would, if some of her stories on how Takane-sensei pushed them was true.

The girl was already far stronger than him, not that he'd admit it.

As they sat down for their last dinner in the training camp, the two of them comfortably next to the other, he mused over the broth that was that night's grub.

"So tomorrow we're doing the test…mine's the Grinder." He pointed out hopeful to start a conversation. The girl was slightly twitching, like something was unnerving her.

"Fukuyo-san didn't pass her test." She whispered, "I don't know what Takane-sensei did, but she didn't pass…I heard her cry all the way out of camp."

He gritted his teeth slightly. Even though he found it kind of difficult to understand, for people to be failed when they hadn't been kicked out the day before, it was still an eventuality. One that had to be taken in consideration, because if the test was just that, a repetition of the old exercises, then what could it truly test?

"Chickening out?" He queried back with a teasing tone, "That's not at all like you Katsu-chan." He added carefully, "Though you do look like a little chick with that hair of yours."

Three months and short hair had brought out the real color of Katsu's head. The white had been kind of soft, so the first thing that he had thought was that it resembled those baby doves that had their feathers out.

"Shut it." She glared back at him. He knew of course that it was a touchy subject, but he couldn't help but grin never the less. "It's not funny."

"Why? I don't think it's _that_ bad. Remember that kid from Psycho-sensei? He had blue hair."

"Blue is _strange_, and somehow not funny. White is creepy. Creepy and funny." She muttered back, twiddling a lock of hair. She had let it grow once more. He reckoned it was because there was no-one who'd cut it for her. The others that they had befriended had already left, and they'd soon be the next ones. New kids had come, some more shocked than others, but it was no longer their turn to befriend them. They'd be the next one to leave after all.

"How about a bet?" He asked, "If we both pass the exam, I'll offer you dinner at a place I know when we go back to Konoha."

"Bet? Hum…" The girl appeared to be thinking it over, before finally relenting with a nod, "Fine. But what if one of us loses, or what if we both lose?"

"In that case, the side that wins has to pay dinner for the side that loses, as a consolation." He replied quickly. "That fine?"

"Then you'd better not fail, because I don't have much money." The white haired girl chuckled at that, only for him to actually scratch the back of his head sheepishly.

"Me neither. My father's all for the 'what you get is what you earn' policy…If I'd get a Ryo for every time he gave me money…I'd be still without money."

"You know, I never asked…your father's the Sandaime right?" He nodded at that, and he could see she was taking the courage to ask him something, because she was biting her lower lip for a moment…and he had half a hunch anyway what the question was going to be about.

"Yeah, he's _old_ alright, but he's my father. He said so. Mother was younger than him by a bit, at least that's what he said. Never went more in details…don't even have a picture or a name. Broke his heart or something like that." He added quickly.

"Ah! I'm sorry. I didn't want to pry…" She shook her head, before fidgeting once more with a lock of white hair, "Neh…I'm going to be in the public dormitories back in Konoha…happen chance we don't see each other afterwards or during the trip back…I'll give you the mushrooms book back there, alright?"

"Hai! I'll bring you to meet my father then. " He replied with a light grin. "I'm sure he's going to love speaking with you too about plants."

"I don't want to impose…" She hastily retorted, kind of like she was afraid of something.

"Nonsense!" He insisted, "My father's not all that terrible as they depict him! Sure, he might have killed one too many Kumo Nins, but that was what made him Hokage!"

"They say he was particularly brutal with the Kinkaku force." She wheezed out, like if she was trying really hard to refrain from blurting out something bad. Her face too had turned a darker shade of red. Maybe she was coming down with a fever.

"He didn't tell me how that battle went." He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think of a polite way to tell the girl that there was nothing to worry about. "But I'm going to ask him when I go back, and then I'll tell you, alright?"

"Yeah…I'll hold you to that." She whispered out.

That was the last time he saw her at the camp, or the camp itself for what it mattered.

The day of the test, he was standing at the beginning of the Grinder's course, ready to depart, when Michiki-sensei spoke quietly.

"Well, today's the day." The voice was slightly grim, "Do your best. Expect the unexpected. _Survive_."

"huh, sen…"

"START!" With the loud yell and the bang of an explosion, he was off.

A starting jump brought him to embrace halfway through the tree's smooth surface. Pushing with strength against his hands he pinned his body on the surface and jumped by using the arms' muscles to pull himself upwards. At the first branch, his hand went to grab it only to yank back a yelp of pain. Barely managing to hold himself with his legs, he looked at the line of blood seeping down from the open palm.

The glint of razor-like ninja wire shone briefly in his eyes, and he knew now what the man had meant. They had trapped the entire thing with potentially lethal weaponry.

This was his test after all. He knew it wouldn't be just another walk in the park. Carefully he began to climb towards the surface, only for another light explosion to hit just mere meters behind him.

"Time is of the essence all the same!" His instructor yelled from down below. The voice made it through the ringing of his eardrums, as suddenly a yelp stuck itself in his throat. The tree lurched and bent, its harsh bark cracking under the strain of the explosion. He didn't stop.

He made a mad dash for the upper level of the tree, his arms grabbing onto whatever protuberance they could manage, his nails ending up carving on the bark itself for a hold. The treetop came to view, but was soon forgotten as the tree bent towards the direction he needed.

Without halting, he jumped and the wind _blew_. His frame was diverted off course slightly, but it was enough to force him to flail his hands in order to grab upon a lower level branch of the other tree. This time he let himself fall, because something had dug deep within his palms. His feet braced against a lower level branch, and as it snapped because of the weight he forced his side against the bark. Using his arms, he braked against the surface all the way down to its roots, before hastily making a run for the other tree.

He had to climb it again, and this time his palms were bleeding profusely. Small metallic glints came from them, and he knew what those things were without even having to think about it: nails.

He spat a small curse as his teeth carved deep into his right hand, trying to take at least one out. Not that it would work. His hands trembled, but that wasn't what made him yelp a second time.

It was a root that made him stumble on the ground, and that saved his right leg from a _bear trap_. There was a bear trap on the ground between him and the second tree he had to climb.

There was a damn bear trap!

Cursing he got back up, his eyes concentrating on the ground. He avoided a thick patch of caltrops, and two visible wires. Another bear trap awaited him at the base of the tree, but he had no intention to make it snap. Jumping, he braced himself against the smooth bark. He repressed the curses and the yells, numbly hoping for it to be but a bad dream or a Genjutsu. If it was a Genjutsu, it sure as hell was extremely painful.

He ignored the branches up the tree the second time. This time he knew what to expect. Carefully the top was made manifest to him, and once there, the jump was reiterated. Now the pulsing on his palm was rhythmic. Sure, it was still there, but the raw pain had at least abated, leaving the spot to silent cursing in his head.

He let his body to glide downwards, not wanting to waste any more time. Punctually, two branches snapped to his sides, the glitter of the ninja wire showcasing his point that it was all a mere repetition of the previous traps.

It was then that he quickly jumped away from the bark, landing with his right leg on the puddle of caltrops and groaning in extreme pain as the metal bit into the flesh. It was that or ending up snapped in half by a bear trap.

He stumbled upwards, and to his point, he did not cry. He had to become a shinobi.

He wouldn't fall only because of this. It was all a Genjutsu after all: all but a mere Genjutsu that he had to stop believing in if he wanted to finish this painlessly. His right leg could still hold his weight: it wasn't broken and his ankle wasn't twisted. It just hurt and moving it was hard, but not impossible.

The last stretch was there. The last meters of ground and then…then the rope bridge came into view, halfway submerged. The river didn't have a strong current, but to him, right there and then it could have been a puddle: he'd still have troubles. The first step nearly made him trip over the slippery rope. The second came with the cold knowledge that the water wasn't at all making him feel better.

The rope was grinding against his palms, already bloody for the nails that had deeply been pushed in his skin. He took another step, and the freezing water seeped through his clothes, making his wounded leg sting like it was on fire. Wasn't it supposed to make it feel better? To numb the pain?

He took another step, and another. Did he really have to swim the way back? No. He'd cross that bridge when he'd manage this one. Another step was done, and yet another. He wasn't going to stop there. The cold actually did numb his pain, at least now he could actually _move_. Another step.

The land was there, he was there. The bridge had been crossed.

The bridge _had_ _been_ _crossed_. He turned around, and he jumped in the cold water. His arms flailed as the water made his clothes heavier and heavier, but he did not stop. Why did he want to _be_ a shinobi so badly? Why did he want to _fight_ so badly? Why was he willing to risk his life so hard, with so much strength, to become one? What was his reason?

_We are the shadows of the fire. We are the roots of the tree. We are the sword in the darkness. We are shinobi._ The question however remained.

Why? Why become one? Why suffer through blood loss, why fight this cold bitter water that menaced to drown him? What was the purpose of all of this?

Why was he fighting?

The cold was already at the tip of his fingertips, but he did not stop. Was it hardheadedness? Was it an unstoppable will? Was it determination blazing through him? But _why_? Why, _Why_, **WHY**, _**WHY**_? Why…indeed.

He touched land with his right palm: the soft grass under his raw and cold skin was tactless. He couldn't stay to feel the sensations it might bring him, because he had to climb the tree back once more. Slowly, his teeth began to gnaw at a branch he had picked from the ground. He mustered his will as the ascent began again in earnest.

The traps that had sprung were easy to evade now, those that hadn't stood still there, in their spots. Yet he climbed. His right leg flared with pain when it touched the wooden trunk, but he couldn't stop. He could feel the blood seep down towards his feet, and start to drip. He could have taken a moment to remove the harmful objects from his body, but wouldn't that have invited blood loss?

Was this the reason Totsuba hadn't been able to say his goodbye? Hadn't Michiki-sensei lied when he had claimed nothing was going to be different? Should he have stayed behind to complain about the traps?

He breathed, suppressing a moan of pain as his lips grated against the wooden branch in his mouth. His tongue rasped against it, but the yells…he did not want to yell in pain as he reached the top once more.

Was the scenery beautiful? He didn't know. Had he even cared once? Was there really beauty if one knew where to look for it? He didn't know. He knew he had to jump.

Yet…why was he going to jump? Had he an answer to that?

"_I'm going to be Hokage, Otou-san! So you be proud of me, kay?"_

"_I'm going to get in Anbu…paperwork sucks."_

"_I'm going to be a shinobi, powerful jutsus rock!"_

"_I'm going to be. I'm…"_

"I'm not scared." He muttered spitting the branch out of his mouth, "I'm not afraid." He added carefully as he pulled himself back to muster his strength.

"I'm Taifuu Shimura, son of Danzo Shimura. You can't stop me. I will become someone…someone my father will be _proud_ of!" With those words, he jumped. His arms flailed as he realized that the jump had been a bit shorter than necessary.

The ground was already incoming towards him, he was too high. There was no way he'd manage to brace for impact.

There was no way he'd survive a fall from such a height.

The blur of speed that was his instructor came just at the right time.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

She hadn't seen Taifuu at all after that night. Not when the camp director congratulated her on her graduation, nor when she was told she was now liable of being military court martialed for any offense, having at all effects entered the military training program of Konoha.

She was now an academy student at all effects, and she was proud of it. She did promise she'd find Fukuyo and hit her hard on the head though. The test of her instructor had barely been the same old set of exercises. That she had done without a hitch. That was when Takane-sensei had told her to start crying like she had _failed_ the exam: to make sure those after her would think it was something completely different and more difficult.

Those who'd fail because of stress were unworthy of being shinobi, after all.

In any event, she was now in Konoha where the dormitory was after all located. The dormitory was an old apartment complex that seemingly had held a set of one room studios a long time ago for a company that had then failed and ended up going bankrupt.

Bought by an enterprising company in reconstruction following the Kyuubi attack in Konoha, it had then had all the studios remodeled into apartments with communal bathrooms per floor and a general kitchen down in the atrium.

Basically, it had just begged the Hokage to buy the entire thing and use it as a dormitory for needy shinobi who found themselves without a home. Orphaned Genins, Chuunins, even a couple of Jounins had their rooms in the complex, some mostly because they were waiting for the house market to stabilize.

Yet some rooms were reserved for the academy students, and just in one of them she was currently getting an earful by the manager of said building on how much the history of the place made it an historical 'landmark of design and practicality'.

It also begged for murdering whoever was in charge with cleaning the unused rooms.

She had finally managed to pry out of the room the elderly lady, a sort of clone of Mai-san from training camp four considering she too used the –chan a bit too often for her tastes, and as she was finally settling in her bags, she couldn't help but frown.

There was a small fridge in her apartment alright, and she supposed she should get checked in with the bank to get the money she had probably accumulated in staying three months at the training camp. With what she had earned, no matter how meager it would be, she'd be probably able to survive without a hitch for the following month. Everything would work out fine and then she'd be in for some finally, or probably, tiring second term. Why did they have to call them years was something she'd never understand.

Why not just say that the academy worked on a six terms basis? It would have solved a lot of problems.

Then again, it did help misinform the general population. If people believed they started at eight years old and finished at fourteen, then they also believed them to be pretty powerful by then.

If they believed that, then it was obvious they'd avoid fights. It was a pretty smart mean of disinformation. She chuckled as she finished putting her clothes in her drawers. The rest of her stuff would arrive eventually from her caretaker's apartment, and from there she'd be set. This would be her home from there on…as long as she kept being a shinobi.

She huffed in annoyance, looking at the small mirror in the beauty case that Benika had gifted her before departing back to home. The huff and tomboyish girl had, obviously because of some sort of twisted sense of humor of fate, a Geisha as a mother. That meant that she was obviously shoved with beauty gifts whether she liked them or not.

So in return, the girl gave them away.

Her hair was now not only pretty much white once more, but was also growing way past her shoulders. She'd have to cut it and dye it again. If only she had been born with a normal hair complexion! Even blond would have been better than this white! She looked like she had intentionally oxygenated it far too much in an effort to make it blond, and that wasn't even the case to begin with.

She shook her head gently, before snapping the beauty case to a close and heading out. There were no locks in the room but they were, after all, in a ninja village. The Hokage tower was easily seen from there, as well as the _monument_.

She had always disliked it, even when she was little. She knew it wasn't the monument's fault, or its location, but she hated looking at it: a tall blood red pillar thrusting upwards towards the sky for seventeen floors. The very same height that the old hospital of Konoha had, before the day the Kyuubi was set loose and destroyed it completely came. On that dreadful ten of October, the hospital was annihilated.

Miraculously the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, had been quick enough to bring out of the nursery some children. That was all however. The very same man had later been found dead, skewered by one of the Kyuubi's claws, after killing the foul beast and making it somehow disappear.

His tale of sacrifice had inspired many to become shinobi afterwards. To her, it was all a cloyingly sweet thing that stank of overly honoring a dead man.

If he had been all that great, he could have saved her _parents_ too, right? Her thoughts were bitter, and she knew it too. Yet she couldn't help it. She just wanted a culprit for _her_ being an orphan, for her ending up being adopted by someone who clearly didn't want a daughter, but on the other hand…it could have gone a lot worst.

"You should check-in with the other neighbors before leaving," a voice called at her from the room nearby, "At least they know not to fret if someone comes in. We're all kind of our own security in here." The voice belonged to a boy her age, with dark red hair and green eyes. He was quite a few inches taller than her, and appeared to be quirking his lips in half an amused smile.

"Oh. I'm Katsu." She replied quickly, already making a small bowing motion nervously. "I'm sorry I didn't know…the old lady spoke about the beauty of the moss on the wall and I kind of got her to leave quickly."

"Good old Chiyo-san," the other boy retorted with a knowing nod, "Can be a hassle if she thinks you're underfed. I'm Okito by the way. Don't know if you remember, but we were at the same training camp."

"Ah…Well…" There, she had just busted herself on the first introduction. She _could_ have tried to smoothly try lying through the situation, but instead nothing: she just had to try and be honest.

"No big deal. I was kind of the sleeping guy in the bed most of the time," he replied with a shrug. "Although I recall your name only because it pops up frequently when speaking with our fellow friend."

She racked her brain, only for the boy to come to her rescue once more.

"Taifuu. The guy that lent you books for the boring times. The one that did the same initiation test as you…" He added carefully.

"Oh! Right! Good then, I can give the books back to you and you can give them back to him!" She exclaimed. It wasn't that she didn't know or remember Taifuu of course. It was that she didn't expect him to be friends with the boy in question. Or for the boy in question to be friends with anyone else, considering he had claimed to be the _sleeping_ guy.

"No need to," he replied hastily swaying his hand right and left, "he lives here too, so you just have to knock at his door: he's two floors below us. Room 16-B."

"Alright, then I'll go and give him the books back later then." She replied with a light smile. "You wouldn't know when the bank closes, would you?"

"In…half an hour?" Okito answered back with an arched brow.

"Shit!" With that, she took off quickly. It was only when she was in the streets, heading towards the bank to make sure her savings were somewhere safe, that she realized something.

Didn't Taifuu have a family to go back home to? So what was he doing there?

She'd ask him the next time she'd see him, which couldn't be that far away, considering they'd both be in the same place for a long while.

_**And corpses' stenches cannot rise to the nostrils of the living, if thick is the perfume that covers them.**_

**Author's notes**

**And Another chapter rolls by (this one at 10K) I knew they'd start to increase in number soon enough, the moment I distract myself is the moment they start growing.**

**First term was abruptly short, (three chapters) but at the same time doing repeatedly the same thing is boring, and bores fast.**

**Now the one month break and the second term are going to be interesting.**

**On to answering questions:**

**The Whisker's marks are a sign that he was birthed by Kushina. They were present before he had the Kyuubi in him in canon, so that pretty much marked him as her child.**

_**In this story, Naruto doesn't have the Kyuubi. He isn't the Kyuubi. He doesn't even know the Kyuubi is still alive. In this story, Naruto isn't Naruto to begin with.**_

**There is something missing in this sentence. You will find out in due time however.**

**As for 'potential' relationships with OC: No. In a thousand's years no. I am not, under any menace of physical confrontation, ever going to put an OC together with a canon characters. They are there as **_**support**_** to the plot, not as a mean to the plot itself. That is why Katsu is there. To support the character of Naruto, to show things on a different viewpoint so that the reader might make 'breakthroughs' before the time comes for Naruto/Taifuu to make them. Katsu has mixed feelings on Naruto/Taifuu. Taifuu has the same things for Katsu. There is no 'love' at first sight bullshit in here. No 'Oh, now I know I love him'. There is respect for one's skill, they're twelve, and while it is perfectly normal for kids in our 'modern' age to go out and about true love on facebook at age eleven (which shocks me by the way) we are speaking of a Twisted Narutoverse. And I sure as hell ain't going to put a 'Konohabook' in there for angsty teenagers.**

**(This is in reply to a particular pm, nothing against reviewers guys! Keep the reviews coming cause I love answering what I can!)**


	4. Tears

The Twisted Reality 4

_**And corpses' stenches cannot rise to the nostrils of the living, if thick is the perfume that covers them.**_

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

The smell of incense was pungent. It laid softly upon his nostrils, but strong enough for him to feel slightly dizzy after two hours in its presence. Yet he didn't want to move from that spot. He stood there quietly, watching without blinking the picture in front of him; the only picture that actually depicted his father out of the entire household. It was the six man group of the Nidaime Hokage. His father was there, gruff and caught by the camera rolling his eyes to the antics of the man, barely a teen at the time, next to him. An Akimichi was puffing his chest out, recognizable by the sheer mass the man possessed, as well as the tattoos on his cheeks.

A girl with two buns on her head, aunt Koharu, was looking with a mixture of disgust and humor at the reactions of both his father and the other boy. The other man, Homura, was holding a scroll by his neck, doing his best cool guy pose. The Nidaime watched over the scene with an amused smirk, next to him a raven haired boy with the Uchiha fan crest on the shoulder.  
The first Hokage was looking with a heartily laugh at the assembled group, garbed in the white and red clothes that would soon be passed down to the Nidaime, and then to his father.

He had known that his father wouldn't be around forever. He had known it, he understood it, yet he had always thought he'd be around long enough for him to become a chuunin at least. Maybe he'd be around long enough for him to become Jounin too. Instead he hadn't: he had barely lasted four days after he had entered training camp Four.

Death by critical heart failure, his body was found one week later. By then, the house was sealed off and his body buried. Even the funeral had been done without consulting him, without telling him anything. The no external contacts policy of the training camp had left him devoid of the information, at least until the day had come for him to graduate.

Minutes after Dr. Dreadful had removed the intrusive objects from his body, Mai-san had come in with a stack of letters addressed to him. He hadn't believed. He had thought it was still part of the test. He had kept on thinking it was all a giant test. Maybe in two years, at the end of all, his father would pop out and laugh at the joke.

It hadn't been a test. The tomb was really there, his name was really there. Danzo Shimura, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato lay dead beneath the earth.

He hadn't been there for his funeral. He hadn't been there for him. He knew he should have yet he hadn't been there.

Now he looked once more at the picture, hanging from the small shrine reserved for the deceased that he had placed in his one room apartment. The fact that his father didn't have any single photos of him just meant that he was actually respecting the souls of the first and second Hokage, together with all the others that had died and were in the picture.

A light knock came to his ears, coming from the door. He knew who it was obviously. There were only two persons who would knock at his door at this hour of the day. One was a sugar-high Okito. The other was a bored Chikao. Considering that Okito would have already barged in, if in his sugar-high state, that left but Chikao: the emotionless sentinel.

He didn't know how Totsuba fared however, and he had no means of contacting him. He'd either see the boy at the next term or he wouldn't, but he had no doubts the teen had passed the exam. To think he had been praised by the instructor for getting past the swimming part. The purpose of the test was to survive the pain at least until the first bear trap: obviously nobody had expected him to last more.

His highly clotting blood had probably something to do with it, but he wasn't in the mood that day to discuss it. He wasn't in the mood even that day, as he carefully moved to open the door mumbling.

"Chikao, need something?" The question wasn't met with an immediate answer and that puzzled him. Chikao was all but time-consuming. He had a problem? He'd state it immediately.

"Ehm…hi?" The voice wasn't Chikao's. Said voice was however familiar. It took him a moment to remember, and when he did his eyes bulged out wide. Katsu was standing just outside of his doorway holding a couple of voluminous books. Books that he had loaned the girl and that he had yet to get back. He had known the girl would come to live here.

He hadn't just expected her to find out he lived there too so quickly. Maybe he had hoped secretly to bump into her one morning or one afternoon…but not for her to come looking for him there. He realized that she was scrunching her nose, probably because of the smell of incense lit. There was a thin layer of smoke coming from the room after all.

"Hey…Huh…how are you doing?" He asked. He couldn't ask something with a bit more of tact obviously. No, he had to ask something like that.

"Fine." She replied. How was he going to make conversation if she kept answering like that?

"Would you like to come in?" He tried, hesitantly gesturing with his right hand to his own one-room apartment.

"If you open the window," she replied with a light cough, "how can you withstand the smell?"

He nodded numbly, moving to open the only window of his apartment and letting the girl come in and close the door behind her. It was then that he realized just how thick the smell of incense was. The first breath of fresh air actually made him chilly, and they were barely in the middle of September. In the Land of Fire September wasn't even a cold month to begin with.

The cold air did him good. He recalled that there was a _girl_ in his apartment. A girl that was probably right about ready to bolt, considering the state his place was in. He turned around already expecting her to still be standing and being ready to bolt out. Instead she was there, sitting down next to the only table there was.

It was like she was subtly ignoring the crumpled clothes to the side or the frankly bizarre shrine he had built in place of the shelf. Thinking about it he quickly went to close the two wooden panels of said shrine, before offering.

"Would you like some tea?" He hazarded, "I have brown rice one." He added hopefully, "Cold, in can." He swiftly specified. "That and coke." A moment later. "For Okito. Then there's Ginseng tea for Chikao…I don't know what you like though…"

"Ah…Tap water?" She hesitated. Had he appeared weird? It wasn't weird to be on the lookout for what other people liked to drink and have one of each in the small fridge, right? It was _thoughtful_. Thoughtful and polite he would add mentally while self-patting his brain.

"On to it." He luckily did have a clean glass. He had gone over to his house to take at least some spare changes of clothes, and in doing so had discovered just how much being in a shinobi village meant hassles. He wasn't yet a shinobi. He wasn't even a civilian. Hanging in between the two denominations he couldn't be given access to his father's secrets or to the jutsus he might have hidden in it. At the same time had he been a civilian untrained, there would have been no problems in simply emptying the house and letting him stay there.

Yet he did not want to go back to that house. It haunted him like a sort of wretched being. The very thought of the creaking wood and the eerily silent atmosphere choked him. He knew it wouldn't last. Obviously when he made Genin he'd end up there. He had a house to go back to, differently from the others who were living here. He'd leave the apartment to someone who wasn't as lucky as him.

The glass with the water within was gently handed over to Katsu, who appeared to be fidgeting. Maybe he had left the shrine open long enough for her to see it? The image on the mountain behind him most certainly would have made her connect the dots. Wouldn't it?

"Thank you." She politely addressed him. Quietly they sat looking at one another, and he had the feeling there was something the girl wanted to ask him.

"I…I wanted to offer my condolences for your loss." She began quietly, holding the glass with both her hands.

"There's no need." He hastily replied, shaking his head. "I've already got enough of them from the entire population, from civilians and shinobis…got stopped on the street twenty times _at least_. If I stop to chatter they actually manage to block off the road by ganging on me."

"The Sandaime was loved by the people." He snorted at that.

"No. Father was a lot of things, but _loved_ isn't just the term. He did his job, always did. He kept his successes hidden from view, didn't want to make a fuss of it. Shinobi live in the shadows…Kages should be an example of that." He added thoughtfully. "Never boasted about anything. For most of my life I thought he was just an old man, even a retired smith once…" His voice wasn't cracking was it? "He always had that way of doing things…just, without expecting nothing else back you know? It was like he didn't want people to know he _could_ care and he _would_ help. He regularly sent checks to the orphanage, to the hospital, to various animal shelters even, and he did all that while staying anonymous…Yet for what do they remember him? For fighting off Kumo shinobis…for winning a war." He shook his head. His vision wasn't blurry because he was crying, had to be the incense stinging in his eyes.

"He was a lot of things, and I'm the only one who knows about most of them. How is that fair? How can people just come up to me smiling, saying they _knew_ him when they didn't?" Was he ranting now? He didn't want to appear to be the ranting type. Why was he trying so hard not to appear as such was a mystery even to him, but it was all that mattered to him at the moment, wasn't it?

"I'm sorry." He muttered after a moment, catching his breath. "I shouldn't have…"

"No…No, it's alright." She replied. "I think I can understand the feeling. Not knowing if you could make a difference or not, not knowing if you could have done anything different to change the outcome…I know."

Her eyes drifted to the side, and he knew he had to do something to change the argument.

"So, tonight we're going to eat out?" He asked, "The bet's done I suppose, since I passed. You passed too right?"

"Obviously, or I wouldn't be here." Her answer's hasty. "So where's the place in question?"

"It's called Ichiraku's ramen." He replied with a heartfelt sigh, "Lots of types of ramen."

"You haven't been living off the stuff till now, right?" The question hung in the air for a moment, before he chuckled nervously.

"Of course not." Why was she getting all _worried_ over him? He was fine, really. Sure, maybe he hadn't seen a vegetable in two or three days, but it was alright. Vegetables can wait.

"Liar." She pointed it out with ease, "You're a terrible liar. That's a good trait I suppose." She added before impishly snapping her eyes shot. "I did not say that."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Nothing important." She shook her head quickly, "I'm keeping an eye out for you."

He heard the sentence. He did indeed hear the sentence, but the question that rose to the forefront of his head was instead another. It wasn't a thank you, or a 'stop it you're making me blush'.

"Why?"

"I lost my parents too." She was quick about it, and terribly brisk. He winced mentally: she didn't want to be talking about this and yet there she was, doing it nevertheless. "I know the feeling. I know them _all_…and we survived Psycho-sensei together. We went through the training camp four together…we're comrades. It's what friends are there for, right?"

He blinked once. Quietly he nodded numbly. Maybe that was all the purpose of the academy's initiation: to form tightly knitted groups of shinobi. It kind of made sense too.

"Yeah…right. Thank you." He whispered, not trusting his voice. "Still, the bet was on that place. So it's ramen tonight."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes, "When you'll be lacking breath because of the excess of cholesterol in your veins, I'm so going to tease you."

He chuckled. This was certainly the start of a good friendship…wasn't it?

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

She had _finally_ mustered the guts to actually ask the boy if they had ever met before. Then, she had knocked on the door and she had realized just _why_ he was there. If the chatter on the streets hadn't clued her in on the death of the Sandaime, she'd still have understood it considering the shrine that had been built from scratch within the apartment. Or the new added statue in the square just next to the apartment complex.

The atmosphere had lightened up, and every now and then a little joke concerning fat being an effective shinobi weapon entered the discussion. Afterwards, he had told her of his own graduating system, and she of his.

The boy had far more guts than her, to last that long. She wouldn't have survived something like that. Maybe till the bear trap, but to reach past the rope bridge? Definitively not.

"It's getting late, shouldn't we be going?" She mentioned. Had she been dating someone, she'd have probably gone back to her room to change, maybe have a shower. This however wasn't a date. It was a mere dinner with someone she considered a friend.

"On it." He replied standing up. The grin was all there. It was such a nice grin, a pity for the blotched tattoos on both of his cheeks. It actually didn't even seem to matter that they had gone through hell, as they walked alongside in the street.

Never mind the stalker that was following them quietly. She knew there was someone following them. She had caught a glimpse of him at least twice by now, and it wasn't anyone like Okito or Chikao or Totsuba. It wasn't even Benika or Fukuyo or Waka. Whoever it was wasn't obviously a trained ninja, but still…it was starting to grate on her nerves.

She turned around to give the man a talk off, hoping for an Uchiha guard or two to stop by and arrest him. He was gone when she did though, and she decided against abruptly turning midway because it perplexed Taifuu.

The Ichiraku ramen stall was precisely that: a stall. It had a set of wooden stools, a wooden counter, and the smell that came from within was precisely what one could expect from such source of highly cholesterol damaging place: good. Why were the good things the one that smelled heavenly?

She sat down right next to him, not hiding a snort as the ramen stall actually held an old man and a young woman, the woman in particular giggling at them. He hadn't been living off the stuff much, right? That's what Taifuu had said to her before. Strange, because it appeared as if he was a habitué of the place.

"So Taifuu-kun," the woman began gently, "Who's this adorable friend of yours?"

"She's Katsu-chan: we did training camp together." The boy replied with a knowing nod, earning a slight gasp from the ramen girl. Of course: _she_ didn't think she was a girl. Fine, maybe she wasn't actually wearing girly clothes, maybe she didn't have a chest like hers, maybe she was fine without a skirt, but it didn't mean that she had to be confused for a man. She didn't have the Adam's apple to begin with! Was it that _difficult_ to see it?

"A pleasure to meet you," she gritted out from her clenched teeth. The stall girl simply smiled sweetly back, before replying in a tone that she _had_ to be faking. Nobody could be that coyly sweet.

"Oh my! What a _cute_ _little_ _thing_ you are! The pleasure is all mine!" She had to be faking. She should have just come out clean and said that she thought she was a boy.

"Neh Ayame-san, two miso ramen." Taifuu's voice suddenly butted in.

"Two? Are you ordering also for me?" She asked perplexed. She knew what type of ramen to eat after all. She'd rather have pork. Pork was by far the healthiest thing in a ramen bowl.

"Oh, hum… yeah!" His exclamation came with a bright and completely fake smile. She merely narrowed her eyes, trying to convey just how much she would like to hear the real reason behind ordering two bowls, but kept quiet when he simply kept the grin up. In the end his sweating gave him away, but she relented. No need to bash him tonight on what was healthy and what wasn't.

"Aw…Taifuu-kun that's not fair!" Ayame pouted, "I told you to call me Ayame-chan!"

The old man that was probably the girl's father seemed to be merely content in cooking the required dinner. This had the look of a truly cliché and old plot. Something that repeatedly happened every night, considering the rest of the stall's occupants merely looked at it with mere normalcy.

Well, everyone except a pink haired girl that appeared to be strangely fixating on the scene. She did look familiar, but yet she couldn't quite actually place her anywhere. Maybe she had seen her along the street? Pink hair… Who, sane in their mind, would ever dye their hair pink?

She was _glaring_ at the ramen stall girl, glaring outright. Whoever she was, it wasn't her business to meddle with fan-girls. If the academy did wonders to the girls, it certainly didn't work on the civilians. The Miso arrived in time. She might have pointed out on Taifuu's order being bigger than hers, but after all everyone deserves to be coddled at least once, right?

"Itadakimasu!" The cheerful exclamation of the boy got her out of her thoughts, and splitting her own chopsticks, she returned the greeting.

The ramen was warm, and good. She didn't even know why she had been so hostile over the young woman. Probably because she had appeared as a menace, when in truth she was merely _playing_ with Taifuu. Since when did she need to take care of menaces? Oh yes. Since the moment she decided that keeping Taifuu _happy_ was her responsibility.

She stopped mid-slurping on the noodles. She blinked once then twice. She suddenly halted thinking before coming to a screeching realization. She slowly chewed until the last bit of the wet pasta string was inside her mouth, before turning to stare owlishly at Taifuu.

It wasn't that she actually had a _crush_ on him. They were kids, they were friends, but that was all: there was no heart flutters, no butterflies in the stomach, nothing of the sort... It was more like there was something else that made it feel right to be there to protect him. It was just, in one word: familiar. It was kind of like being more of a sister than a lover.

At the mere _thought_ of the word lover she felt heat rise to her cheeks. Heat that was suppressed down quickly, as she finished eating the salty and unhealthy food in the blink of an eye: something that Taifuu had already done it appeared, since he was waiting for her to finish. She was just overthinking everything. She had to take a deep breath, and calm down.

Taifuu sweetly paid for both of them while she internally debated her problems, even though the bet hadn't said anything about it, and then he began to walk her back home. Well, to walk the two of them back home. She kept quiet for a while looking at Taifuu's scrunched face, like he was debating whether to say something or not. She waited, and it wasn't until they were near the apartment complex that he finally decided to speak.

"It feels like we have already met before." He mumbled quietly. "I mean…even before the training camp."

"I know." She replied quickly, "maybe we played together in the park?" She queried.

He winced for a second, before strangely finding himself to nod.

"Yeah. I recall going there a couple of times…the orphanage's garden was the closest one to my house."

"Oh." She murmured. "Then that's it!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands with a light giggle spreading from her throat.

"What?"

"It means we are both fated for greatness! You'll see. They'll put us in the same team, doing the most difficult missions and then we'll rise through the ranks like a flash and end up becoming the next sannins!" As she proclaimed that, she suddenly realized just what she had said. Taifuu was looking at her strangely, a mixture of shock and perplexity that made her blush fiercely. She had kept a mostly somber attitude until then, and now she had to go and show off her tomboyish attitude in one go. Nice. She was really smooth when she wanted to be…sarcastically thinking.

"Ehm…that is if…"

"I'm in!" He replied with his usual smile. "I'm planning to become as cool as Jiraiya! He's head of Anbu for a reason you know?"

"Nah. Orochimaru-sama is better." She replied smoothly. Of course he was better: he was Hokage. He gave the shots and the orders and everyone else followed.

"Tsunade." The monotone voice broke her from the chat and made her yelp in fear, just as at the same time Taifuu did too. Chikao was looming behind the two of them. Just when the hell had he reached behind them? He was holding a plastic bag, the contents of which appeared to be ramen cups.

"Ohi Chikao! You scared the crap out of us!" Taifuu exclaimed, being the first to regain his breathing. Had they been stalked by Chikao all along? No, it wouldn't make sense. The boy could have merely sat down with them or walked alongside them. Even if he had wanted not to interrupt them, he could have at least entered the stall afterwards, instead of buying cup ramen.

No, he had to have gone out before them, and had been returning only then. Maybe he had gone to a convenience store?

"Point taken." He muttered with his usual dead-like tone, before turning his head behind. His eyes scrunched up for a moment, before his head shook slowly.

"Nothing." He murmured before starting to walk alongside us. "Heard from Totsuba: hospitalized after passing."

"Oh man! He fell for the bear trap?" Taifuu winced, as she did too. A bear trap's pressure on the leg could be pretty much career ending, depending on how it ended up.

"The second one," Chikao deadpanned, "Was not set to cut neatly: he did not risk losing the leg. Bone broke however."

"Phew." She was actually relieved to hear that. The more people passed that they knew, the better chances that in the future they'd end up with squad mates they'd be able to tolerate. She was pretty sure that a team made of her, Taifuu and…probably someone else of their common friends would be the best.

They just had to go through the second term and all of the following without failing. How hard could that be?

It was then that she caught once more the glimpse of the damn stalker. This time it was clear it was someone else following them. Her eyes settled on the figure that appeared to be wearing some sort of black cap to conceal most of her head. It wore a pair of thick and black sunglasses, and the next moment it scampered away.

She growled lightly at the retreating figure: if there was one thing she didn't tolerate was someone messing with one of her friends, one of her first friends. Well, the figure was probably just a fan. A civilian one at that…it wasn't going to be dangerous.

"You're growling to the trashcans now, Katsu-chan?" Taifuu teased her. It wasn't her fault the mad figure had hidden behind them. She growled once more, before shaking her head.

"Nothing. I'm just tired, that's really all." She murmured as a reply, before waving goodbye and heading to her room.

Tomorrow she'd have to go to the bank, to settle the last few problems that had incurred. It was going to be a boring and tedious day…maybe she could ask for Taifuu to come with her, considering the boy had probably nothing better to do.

It was when she opened the door of her apartment that she stood still for a second. Dark eyes were staring at her from the other side of the room, the glint of a kunai visible. The individual was masked for all except the eyes, and she felt _fear_. Such fear, fright, pure terror that she couldn't move, for some strange sort of reason _something_ prevented her from even screaming as the figure moved closer. The figure stood in the shadows, it wasn't a bulky person, but neither was it lithe. It appeared average in height, weight and muscles.

Whoever it was, it kept to the dark side of the room preventing her from seeing even what the right color of his eyes were. Carefully it inched closer, the Kunai in the hand twirling quietly. No words were said as the metal tip of the weapon carefully reached for her left cheek to draw a single line of blood along it.

Then the figure was gone in a twirl of leaves and she took a deep breath. She crumbled on the floor shivering, sweat pouring down from her body as she tried to come to terms with what had happened. Was this some form of subtle menace? If so for what? What did she do? Carefully her left hand was raised to touch the light wound on her face, and as she did so, she finally took in the sight of her room.

Completely and utterly smashed: somebody had gone to great lengths to trash everything, breaking the table, splintering the floor, destroying the walls and so on…wasn't this supposed to be a ninja complex!? Weren't there _supposed_ to be ninjas in there, paranoid ones at that?

She didn't know what to think: it was just like…she'd have to ask her neighbors. At least, that would have been her normal, _logical_ thought. Yet she just numbly stood up and walked out of the room, closing it behind her.

She gently wobbled her way in a half dazed state down to where Taifuu's room was, and knocked quietly.

He opened, as always he opened the door. She said nothing. She just simply hugged him and began to cry on his chest…it just felt like the right thing to do.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

One month can pass by quickly, when you're fending off some strange stalker. He hadn't thought much about it, but maybe his father had a reason to not like being in the village. Of course the Uchiha police had been most understanding of the problem, and similar accidents hadn't happened again. This didn't matter to Katsu, who was actually _glad_ they'd end up soon in the second term, moving to a training camp.

The next day, they'd have to go to the academy once more, to get settled into classes. This time, they would be separated into groups of thirty-three before departing once more.

Katsu was a bit fidgety, that much he could see. She jumped every time something blurred on the rooftops, and he couldn't help but think there was something really strange going on.

He could understand being scared, but he had no idea why she had to be so much traumatized out of the event. Maybe it was the underlying fear that she might not be in the same class as him, or anyone else. He had thought about it too: what if he ended up in a class made only of repeaters? He'd probably be singled out.

Still, that day he had done his best to make sure she wouldn't be scared by anything. That had been harder than he had thought, especially when it came to navigating Konoha. He was currently eying a set of clay cups and mugs, trying his best scrunched up expression.

He did need some new pottery after all. He shook his head slowly, eying Katsu's drooling face over what appeared to be the next shop window. Assorted shinobi weaponry.

"Katsu-chan. That's for the two last terms onwards." He pointed out quietly.

"I know, but…" She whined at him, rolling her amber eyes. "I think it's unfair." She pouted crossing her arm in front of her chest.

"Yeah. Come on. We need to finish buying the stuff for the training camp." He pointed that out, and as he began to walk alongside the street Katsu followed him cheerfully.

"You know. I checked on the others by mail: Benika-san says that from the second year onwards the dates for entrance and leaving are fixed. We're all going to be in the same class." So that was the reason she was so cheerful today. She had been smiling a lot on that day, something she hadn't been doing since the beginning of the month. Still it didn't explain the fidgety attitude then. If it wasn't for that, what actually made her scared?

"That's good." He replied with a chuckle. "Well then, I don't have to go with you to the lingerie shop, do I? Or maybe you want me to check the _battle_ underwear out?" The question that he asked had the desired effect: Katsu turned beet red, sharply jerking her head to the side and then…then she clenched her fists and flung a punch at the side of his face. A fist that he dodged by ducking down and out of harm's way.

"Watch it tiger!" He grinned, "You risk harming my beautiful face. What will my fans do afterwards?"

"You! You damn cheesy Casanova!" At her reply, he merely chuckled harder. He actually hadn't thought much about it nor did he think it was a big deal, but being the son of the Sandaime, recently deceased, had brought him a fan club.

At first he had tried to laugh it off, but when things had aggravated Katsu's life, he had pointed his feet. They were only friends, more like brothers in arms than anything else. That was all there was, and probably all there would ever be.

He waited for her outside the shop in question, shaking his head with a sigh. Sometimes he wondered just how he managed to cope with everything, and how did the older shinobi do so? Probably by getting some sort of quirk or strange thing that made them different from others.

"Lo and behold, thy perversion outshines the sun's golden rays!" Totsuba was still in the process of finding out his own, but at the present he was stuck in the usage of archaic terminology. It could have gone worse: he might have ended up being an outright pervert or sugar addicted sloth.

The boy was walking, his hair now long, black and tied in a pony-tail, along the street. He chuckled at him, before coming closer. Behind him Chikao and Okito were both having a strange sort of conversation. They were speaking about something that involved sugar, kidneys, bile and staring at open windows.

"Toma, shove it!" He snapped back with no anger. "I'm helping Katsu-chan with her shopping."

"Long live the gentlemen's race," Okito sagely nodded, before yawning and stretching for a second. "Anyway, we were heading off to try a new Cake shop that opened recently." He added thoughtfully, "Want to come?"

"I'll ask Katsu-chan." He replied, "Want us to catch up?"

"No need, we'll wait too," Totsuba shrugged. "A group of boys outside a lingerie shop? Grants the benefit of doubt."

"I think that actually enhances the point of a group of perverts." Okito retorted, trying to hold his best poker face.

"People see what they want." Chikao deadpanned, his eyes rolling at the sight of the people staring before moving on. He obviously could stare at others, but didn't like when the roles were opposed.

"Alas thee words beseech the truth of thy qualms."

"I thought I was hearing nonsensical speaking. Heya guys!" Katsu exclaimed as she exited the shop just as Totsuba was speaking.

"Battle underwear?" Okito's question was met with a fist on the face as a reply; one that sent the boy careening backwards, before falling on the ground.

"A no would have sufficed." The boy muttered standing back up, massaging his hit cheek.

"Knowing you? No it wouldn't have." He pointed out, before adding, "Katsu-chan: want to go and eat cake with these troublemakers?"

"Troublemakers? Please." Totsuba snorted, "We're the less trouble making guys of Konoha. Just look at Chikao: he's more of a corpse than a troublemaker."

Chikao's face sported for a brief moment a flinch of annoyance, before muttering back.

"Annoying."

"Monotonous robot." Totsuba replied as fast as lightning.

"False actor." Chikao was as fast as him with the rebuttal.

"Ehm guys, the cake…" Okito tried to butt in.

"Caffeine addict." Totsuba pointed at Okito.

"Sloth." Chikao nodded.

"You two…" Okito growled for but a second, clenching both of his fists. "Fine. I'm off for cake. Keep on insulting one another!"

"Lead on cake-leader." He chuckled as he made a mock-like military salute. Katsu giggled before getting in line. Okito nodded and began a triumphant march, soon followed by the others who decided to stop bickering long enough to start walking.

He was actually having fun. Meeting friends, going to places together, everything was good. He hadn't had anything of this for a long time. It had always been him and his father, sometimes the caretaker too. This was different. It was new. It was exciting. It made him feel fine. This, this was what had brought his mind out of the gutters of melancholy and sadness.

He wouldn't exchange this for nothing else in the world. The cheerful banter blanketed his ears, the noise of the street doing nothing to prevent him from hearing them just fine.

There was indeed a new cake shop, one of those new additions to Konoha that was ever expanding. A set of tables and chairs and a decorated door that reminded him of whipped cream, considering their light beige colors. The door opened with the jingling of a bell, located at the top of the doorframe.

The shop was devoid of customers, probably because it was just barely past lunch hour, and nobody would have entered a cake shop at said time. The cake shop doubled as a bar, and the owner of said establishment appeared with his short cut dark hair and bright blue eyes from behind the counter. He was wearing a white apron, a green shirt behind it and a pair of white plastic gloves.

"Customers? Of course." The pastry owner self-said to himself with a light chuckle, before sporting a grin, "Well sit down somewhere, and I'll be over soon enough." The man walked towards the back of the shop, disappearing probably to get something for a cake order or something like that.

He merely watched as the others sat down, before taking his own seat. In front of him he had Katsu, while to his side stood Okito. Next to Katsu was Chikao and as the head of the table there was Totsuba.

"The first reunion for the group of 'let us conquer the world' can now begin." The boy states with a serious tone, "First order of business: we need more female members to have equal sex parity."

"You want me to get some friends because you want a girlfriend." Katsu snorted back, "And I told you: Fukuyo's from the Northern Hi no Kuni province, Benika's with her mother somewhere she didn't want to say and Waka is…I have no idea where Waka lives."

"Shouldn't girls have that sort of special power, that grants them the 'always bring a friend to a date when needed' ability?" Okito pointed out, only to receive a hardened glare from Katsu.

"No. There's no such thing."

"Ah…It's a secret Kinjutsu only for women?" The boy replied with a light chuckle, raising his hands in order to gesture for Katsu to calm down, "Just joking Katsu, just joking."

"Sexist." Chikao muttered once more.

"Well then, what can I get for you?" The voice came from a teenager with black hair and piercing red eyes, wearing the same outfit of the man behind the counter. He held a small notepad within his hands and a pen, ready to scribble down orders.

"Just point at something at the counter," the teenager added with a chuckle, using the tip of his pen to point at the glass counter that encompassed half of the shop. It was filled with a variety of cakes, all cut in half in such a way that one could see what was in the filling. There were numbers next to each cake, probably to help with the orders.

"I'll take that one with strawberries, number twenty-seven." Katsu pointed, receiving a nod from the teenager in reply.

"I'll have a thirteen." Okito said, his eyes fixed on the white chocolate cake with sprinkles of candies.

"Four." Chikao pointed out, earning a light chuckle from the teenager.

"Death by Chocolate: a personal favorite of mine if I can say." The cake in question was four layers of chocolate, on the top stood whipped black cream that was probably chocolate mousse. "Dark cacao chocolate, dark nut chocolate, a core of white chocolate, and a bottom of normal milk chocolate and within the layers, chocolate cream…nobody survives it unscathed." There was a dreamy tone in the teenager's words, before he turned his attention to those who still had to order.

"I'll get a thirty-six," Totsuba commented. Truly, more than a cake the thirty-six appeared to be some sort of mixture between a fruit jam, a fruit juice, and an intricate mixture of colored ice-cream flavors.

"I'll take number fifteen." He finished last, his attention caught by what appeared to be a wonderfully baked imitation of a ramen bowl.

"It's got alcohol inside," the teenager replied smoothly, "a bit of this and a bit of that, shouldn't be too strong but one never knows: can't serve it unless you're either ninja or eighteen years old."

"Then I'll take the fourteen." A quick nod was the reply that the teenager had heard. Cake number fourteen was a white chocolate one, but with bits and pieces of strawberry and random fruit assortments on them.

"Anything to drink? Water, juice, coffee, tea?"

"Water." The reply was pretty much unanimous: how could they taste a cake if they drank something that wasn't water?

That normality, that small talk that happened as they ate the cakes and drank the water, those simple gestures of paying and then walking back home. This was normality.

Wasn't it?

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

There they sat, on the stone rows of the small amphitheater built within the side of the mountain. She was sitting with Benika on her right and Waka on her left. Fukuyo was further to the left, next to Waka. In front of her she could see the back of Taifuu, the boy having next to him on the right Chikao, on the left there was Okito, and further to the left there was Totsuba.

This time, they were considerably far more in numbers than before. Probably had to do with the amount of students that hadn't passed the second term, and thus had to repeat the 'year' or maybe it had to do with the high number of graduates of the first term. In any case, there was barely a spot for everyone, and some had ended up having to sit on the stone stairs.

The three chuunin instructors of last time were there too. Mizuki-sensei was actually holding on his frown face, as his eyes scanned through them like they were some sort of wild animals that had to be put down. The scarred chuunin merely tried a sheepish smile while the red haired woman was giving the thumb ups to…the pink haired girl of the ramen stall!

Now that she had the time to think about it, she could see how the girl in question had been giving lingering gazes every now and then to Taifuu, for some strange reason. Still there was no way she could have been the same figure that had trashed her room: for one, she was clearly smaller, and secondly she appeared too frail to actually be a shinobi.

After three months of training camp, she had put up some muscle in her body, as well as a strong tan: the girl's skin was still a pale milky white. Probably it was even smooth. Did she even train?

They had been expressly told not to bring their bags, because they'd be collected later on should the need arise. That had outright brought a new level of worry in her head: what if they were going to start something concerning survival? She just hoped her memories weren't all that foggy from months ago: she had read books on edible plants for a long while.

"Class A will contain…" names began to be called quickly, as everyone lined up behind the chuunin-senseis without wasting time, all probably ready to depart. It took her all of her patience not to groan, when her name popped out…but not that of Taifuu. She hadn't considered they might have been divided even more.

"Class B…" Taifuu ended up in that class, as well as Totsuba, but the others ended up in the last remaining class: C. They had been separated. It was with another hearty groan that she realized that, indeed, she had been entered in a group where she knew no-one else.

She suddenly found herself being forced to follow the red haired woman, as well as the pink haired girl. Among the others, she could see the other clan children, as well as some apparently new faces too. The gut wrenching feeling didn't leave her, as they were moved towards the western gate of Konoha, or when they did indeed reach the depth of a forest.

"Now then!" The woman cheerfully exclaimed, "Sit down in a big wide semi-circle." The clan's children all sat on one side, while she ended up in the middle of the right one.

"We're going to start the second term of Konoha's academy right now, but don't worry: I'm not going to ask you to do anything too difficult." The other children cheerfully made exclamations of excitement. She merely narrowed her eyes.

"My name is, as many of you know already, Kushina Uzumaki." The woman replied with a happy and cheerful exclamation, "I'm the instructor for class A for this term." She smiled sweetly as her eyes looked over the kids in front of her. "Let's all get along, alright?"

This felt completely different. Was the second year taken in a more soft way to avoid piling up the stress on the children? She had no idea. Still, Taifuu was probably going to be fine with Totsuba…it was she who had to find someone to talk to, or make friends with, if she wanted to survive three more months in a training camp.

"By the way! You'll be trained here in the outskirts of Konohagakure, so fret not! Always meet me by the West gate at nine in the morning, bring a packed lunch, and then we'll keep going till four in the afternoon!"

Her mind skidded to a halt. Her eyes widened with surprise. Well, every teacher had their schedule that much she should have thought of. She just hadn't thought she'd be this lucky: a pity for Taifuu who was Kami knew where by now.

Still, this meant that she would have more time to train on her own, if she…she couldn't.

In the training camps, she at least could have gone running around and nobody would have said anything. Heck, she had barely had the time to go to sleep and rest, after Takane-sensei ran them ragged. The laws of Konoha however prohibited shinobi to leave without permission. She was an academy graduate, and she couldn't however enter the training grounds. She couldn't leave by the gates to train outside, and she didn't have the money for going to a gym, of all things.

It was as she was thinking hard about it, that she heard the sensei exclaim.

"Anyway, first thing firsts: I'd like for each of you to do the Ram seal…which is this one."

Quietly, everyone scrunched their eyes at the form of their teacher moving her right hand into the form of the Ram seal.

"Close your eyes and look within you for your chakra." The woman added, that cheerful tone not leaving her for even a second. She concentrated, her eyes closed as she welcomed the familiar sensation of her heartbeat drumming quietly.

With her hands in that symbol, she felt a strange sensation of warmth spread throughout her body, coming from the depth of her stomach. She had done so once before too, in the orphanage when they looked for who could mold chakra and who couldn't.

She had been able then, and she was more than able now too. She could feel it rumbling within her stomach, like a small pool of water that suddenly began to grow and push towards her extremities. A few seconds later she felt a wisp of air touch her skin, caress her entire body, and as she opened her eyes she saw the blue filaments of chakra escape her body in a non-precise pattern.

She looked around, seeing that many of the other kids had done the same, some with bigger quantities and others with smaller ones even.

In particular, the pink haired girl appeared to be channeling quite an amount of chakra through her body, so much that the children next to her had moved away in slight awe.

"That's enough!" The chuunin-sensei barked with a smile, clapping her hands. "For today, as a first day, class is dismissed! See you all tomorrow morning! Don't be late okay!?"

"Hai sensei!" The children…they cheerfully replied as they got up and moved away from the clearing. Konoha wasn't even all that far.

As she stood up to leave, she felt a familiar chill fall down on her spine. She gasped for air for a brief second, before quickly snapping her head to the side. Nothing was there, of course. She was going paranoid. Clearly paranoid…yet why had she the feeling she had been watched from a tree branch?

Everything was going to be fine.

Sure, she was alone, but at least she wasn't heading off to kami knew what training camp. Still, if this was all they had to do, then why have the others move out?

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

Glistening fangs glittered in the light cast by the dying sun. Thick growls echoed in the air as the bushes parted their ways for the kings of the forest. Claws elongated for the attack, muscles and bones thick enough to kill even the strongest of men with a mere impact. They roared, and his hands trembled.

"Don't drop the kunai!" Okito seethed through clenched teeth, standing behind his back as the two growling tigers appeared to be in the process of selecting their prey. He took a deep breath, calming himself. He wasn't alone: they could do this.

"Where's Benika when you need her?" He growled back, his left arm covered in thick tree bark. Better than nothing against the claws of the tigers of the southern area of the land of Fire.

He should have gone with the scarred chuunin, Iruka-sensei. Midway however two masked shinobis had appeared, warning the man that there had been an _accident_ in Mizuki-sensei's class, and for that they needed two new boys of his.

Of course, he had decided to volunteer as well as Totsuba in order to get back with the rest of their friends.

Now they stood in their finest hour: surrounded by two tigers, with their teammate Benika hiding somewhere, if not outright having run away.

"She's gone to get help, trust me on that," he murmured back, swallowing the drop of tension and saliva in his mouth.

"We're fighting tigers." Okito muttered back, "I think adrenaline is better than sugar, but really…_tigers_…can't I have some help here?"

"KYAI!" The yell came from a charging Benika, who in a display of prowess jumped out from behind one of the tigers, leaves and branches sticking from most of her body: a clear sign that she had tried her best to break through the thick undergrowth. Holding her kunai with both of her hands, she probably didn't even think before acting: she just plunged it deeply in the neck of the beast before jumping backwards on shaky legs.

The birds nestled on the tree branches near them flew away cawing as the wounded tiger let out a fierce roar. Nothing is fiercer than a wounded beast, but as the bleeding tiger turned its gaze on the girl, it gave them an opening.

"Fall back on me Okito!" He yelled, moving forward to the wounded tiger. Having turned its back on Benika, he got the jump on the beast, plunging the metallic tip of the weapon in the soft underbelly to form a large gush. Okito let out a startled cry, and as he turned to stare, he sighed in relief.

In fright and with his eyes closed, the boy had managed to plunge the kunai straight into the belly of the other beast that had of course tried to pummel them when they had begun running. Pushing the corpse to the side, Okito let out rasped gasps for air. Then, within a mere moment of peace, the retching sound of Benika echoed in his ears.

The girl was a mess, a trembling mess of dirty matted hair and scratches.

"How's team Totsuba doing in your opinion?" Okito murmured, sitting down just next to the body of the tiger. Dead beasts don't stand up again.

"I hope they make it to camp." He muttered back, "I'm sure he's going to manage. He was in a team with a repeater of this term…"

"You know, was he with the same chuunin-sensei as before?" Okito mused out loud, "I mean: he did appear pretty jumpy."

"Shut it!" He growled letting his gaze move to the trembling form of Benika. "It's all going to be alright. We just need to keep on moving along the map…the map!" He carefully began to pat around his body, before taking a sigh of relief and taking out a small paper square. Carefully unfolding it, he eyed the trail they were meant to follow.

"You know: I'm starting to think that following that piece of junk is a bad idea." The other boy pointed out, flipping the kunai and starting to cut through the beast's belly.

"What are you doing?" Benika queried in a soft voice, as he put back the map in his pocket.

"Taking provisions." He replied in Okito's place, "You know how to carve the meat?"

"Not a clue." Okito replied with a hearty chuckle, "But my uncle's a butcher: I'm used to seeing meat everywhere dangling around. At least I can get the job done without being squeamish…one of you want to try?"

He took a deep breath, before moving closer to the other corpse. The blood had already begun to pool around the carcass, and yet he didn't feel all that skittish about it.

_The blood, crimson liquid that it is, pooled around the man's neck. Gushing out like a river of deep red color, the ground was soaked and drank thirstily from it. The eyes open in shock, their light gone._

He took a deep breath steadying his hand as the kunai it held, the only weapon they had all been given, fell down in a deep arc. The skin of the beast was lacerated with a sickening pop as the tip of the blade moved in a zig-zag line across it. Hadn't the beast bled enough? Why was there still blood, emerging from the newly made wound and coloring his hands?

Benika watched in silence the scene, her stomach empty. In the end, he had to stop. There was just so much blood, so much…flesh and meat and muscles and red.

"First comes the skin, then comes the fat, then comes the muscle and then comes the bone." Okito pointed out, moving closer with what appeared like a small greasy and red bag of fur. "No use trying to conserve it without salt. Did well in cutting it though…Taifuu, can you start a fire?"

He nodded, quietly keeping the kunai in his hand as he looked around. The kunai was their only weapon: the only one. If they lost it, they'd be without. They'd be without and in a clearly hostile territory.

"I think the map was made to mislead us." Benika pointed out, once the fire was going and she was sitting in front of it, her shivers a bit subsiding. "The point is the destination right? So it doesn't matter how we reach it as long as we reach it."

"That's only if the destination is right too." Okito retorted. "What if we must follow the trail because the destination is alongside it?"

"So…we're in deep shit both ways." He muttered gingerly grabbing with a pointy stick, courtesy of his kunai and a branch, a piece of cooked tiger meat.

"Chew it a lot: it's harder than it looks." The other boy mused, his right cheek swollen by said meat and the process of chewing it.

"We killed two tigers." Benika muttered in a light giggle. "Aren't we great?"

"I don't see the greatness in that." He murmured, "We have one week to reach camp, we haven't seen any of the other teams, and for all we know we could just as well be lost."

"Always the stick in the mud huh, Taifuu?" The snort came at the same time as a howl echoed throughout the forest.

"Wolves? The carcasses." He muttered grabbing a hold of his kunai. They should have disposed of them, but the beasts' corpses weighted far too much for them to handle.

"We should move to the trees," Benika suggested. "We can leave the fire here." He nodded, as well as Okito did too, and then the three moved towards the base of the nearest tree.

"Benika, you go up first." With a quick nod from the girl, she was hoisted upwards to reach for the closest branch, and from there on climb upwards.

"Okito, you go next." His order received another reply, and with a grunt of effort, even the sugar-high sloth reached its branch.

He was the last one, and as swiftly as he could his hands moved alongside the bark of the tree, climbing like only a monkey could do. Finally he got atop his own branch, landing his back against the trunk and letting his legs dangle from both sides.

"You know: the shodaime Hokage created Konoha's barrier of trees with especially thick branches and trunks, so that shinobi could rest perched from them with little risk." Benika spoke quietly, trying to make small talk.

"Who believes we're being watched even now?" Okito mused with a light chuckle. "You know the gist? If you claim in an empty room the words 'I know you're watching', you either make an Anbu afraid he's being discovered, or simply speak in an empty room?"

"We walked all day, killed two tigers, ate a half-assed dinner." He began counting with a grim chuckle.

"Hey! My cooking skills are elite, please!" Okito snapped back.

"And we're making small talk atop a tree that has branches out to murder my ass. Can we please, pretty please, speak of something else than if there are or not Anbu enjoying watching us squirm?"

"I'm just saying, what if there actually aren't?" At Okito's question, Benika whispered back.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was thinking…everyone eventually gets promoted, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well what if one, let's say, fails repeatedly the same term? Like, ten or twenty times."

"I suppose he'd stop being a shinobi and have his chakra sealed, right?" The girl's question hung in the air, before he decided to reply.

"That's not possible. A shinobi can only retire of old age or from active service. Chakra sealing is a punishment for crimes."

"Yeah, anyway I was listening in to the other guys from the class while walking. Those who had failed were all from different classes. You know…but the fun fact was that they all claimed they were from classes B."

"So what?" He queried, "There are different times to start off, right? Might have been from a term later on, or earlier on."

"Yeah, but there wasn't one from class A to begin with." The boy's voice came from behind him, and it was as low as a murmur, "And you did tell me that the guys came to ask for two of class B right? You and Totsuba volunteered but the point is…wouldn't that mean that two folks died on the march towards the training camp, and they replaced them with you?"

"I think I get what you're trying to say." Benika exclaimed, "There's no way they'd ask for only two, if we were divided in groups of three. Furthermore none of us saw two disappear while we were waiting for them…so we had to have started with two less than normal."

"If that is the case, then another class should have two more." Okito mused, "Or both classes should have ended up with one extra."

"You think so?" He whispered.

"I think class C is the pool for the failures of class B and A." The boy replied, "And in our class lethal force is authorized to terminate the problem."

There was a startled gasp from Benika, who began to whimper.

"That's…That's not possible Okito! They can't go and kill us off! We're still people of Konoha!"

"Then they don't. They just make it look like it. Maybe they do it for those who fail a lot, like, more than three times. Otherwise they'd just keep having classes and classes of thirty-three students that grow progressively older, and cost to the village…isn't that right?"

"Maybe…" He murmured, "But I'm not going to start wondering if we've been sent to our carnage or not, Okito…let's just get to that damn training camp, alright?"

"Alright…who's actually sleepy tonight?" The boy's voice was soon met with the light sobbing from Benika, who stood on her branch shivering.

"We're all going to die…" she murmured, and in the silence of the night that voice was something that clearly echoed through the trees.

"There you go Okito: now you calm her down." He snapped, growling slightly at the red haired boy who sheepishly grunted an affirmative reply.

"Benika-chan," he heard Okito start, "Calm down…everything's fine. We've got our stick in the mud, and my fabulous sloth powers. Come on, me and Taifuu over there both know you're stronger than this. You're our regular ape-man."

"WHAT!?" She shrieked, fear forgotten as rage probably took its place. "I'm murdering you when I get my hands on your neck!"

"Oh my! Big words Doormat girl!"

"Doormat!? _Doormat_!? I'm…argh!"

He merely chuckled, shaking his head as his eyes looked above them, to where the smaller branches moved gently to the strength of the wind.

"Thank you." Benika's whispered words reached him, as they probably reached Okito's ears too, before he finally drifted off to sleep.

Whatever was going to happen from there on, he just hoped they'd turn out alright. Quietly, he scratched his shoulder, where the bark he had placed there as a sort of make-belief armor rubbed against. They'd make it.

They'd survive the second term.

A question however popped up, within the deep recess of his mind.

When did _pass_ the second term, become _survive_?

_**Tears are hidden and cries are deadened. Hide what you can't comprehend. Kill what you can't understand. Murderous eyes will shine through the darkness, asking the question of old: is it over yet?**_

**Author's notes**

**And another chapter is out.**

**I'm sure a lot of you will be 'miffed' is that the correct word, at how 'slow' I'm going with this.**

**At the same time I'm going fast. I'd suggest a Persona 4 approach to the matter, or a School Days thing. You know: a nice happy start. People being happy, getting to know one another, everything is fine. Then something starts to seep through the cracks, and fluffiness leaves the place to a dark and creepy understanding that nothing is as it seems.**

**In the end I decided that for this story, I'll keep the third person narrator. **

**Another thing! AS always, OCs are there only to support main characters, that doesn't mean I am not going to expand on them.**

**(of course in a limited way) It's too easy to go 'meh' at the death of an Oc. (I do that a lot too, trust me) That's because they are either insufferable things or little expanded things. (That and usually they get their entire life told in a single chapter. Just no.) A character needs more than one chapter to be loved, to be accepted, to become someone that is, indeed, liked by the reader.**

**Then you can kill him in a mass of blood and gore and make the reader start crying tears on 'you cruel bastard!'**

**As always, I have no idea where this story is going. At present my mind-plot has reached till the chuunin exams, and it's not going to be a happy ride till there either.**

**Oh and before anyone starts complaining about another 'Jinchuuriki Sakura that is just like Naruto/Canon Sakura'. No. Please no. One thing are the quirks that carry on (the naruto's 'ttebayo, for example, is some sort of genetic trait since he had it even without knowing Kushina's own) another is just plopping canon on fanfiction.**

**Some things are just not done.**

**By the way…I'm kind of wondering if you'd either want me to keep this 'pace' (Aka at least some more chapters before 'canon days' of last term+graduation) or if you want me to go faster. I'm just curious mind you, I'm the writer, so if I actually want to start a day by day narration (No worries, the answer to that is no) I'll do it, but hey, I enjoy hearing the reader's opinion on what 'pace' is kind of their liking.**


	5. The Hidden

The Twisted Reality 5

_**Tears are hidden and cries are deadened. Hide what you can't comprehend. Kill what you can't understand. Murderous eyes will shine through the darkness, asking the question of old: is it over yet?**_

_Konohagakure no Sato - Katsu Uzuki_

She sighed as she began to play with the whipped cream that made the top of the cake she currently had in front of her. She was standing in the corner of the cake shop, happily munching on the sweet and her eyes lost in thoughts. She felt kind of lonely, to tell the truth, sitting like that in the corner with no-one to talk to.

She had tried to connect with the rest of her class, but it hadn't been easy. Some outright ignored her, claiming they had no time for a 'first-term' student who'd probably fail since the rest was already repeating the term. Even among the others, she had realized she was the only one to do the term for the first time with that particular instructor.

She hadn't even tried to become friends with the clan children. It wasn't that she disliked them or anything, but they principally kept to themselves. They were already nine, and if her gut instinct claimed true, they'd all probably pass the term without a sweat.

She was already imagining them training in their sparkly clan compounds, repeating their techniques time and time again. She couldn't even try and mold chakra out of the supervision of her chuunin-sensei, because it was prohibited to do so in the apartment complex.

Basically, she was tied down to the little practice she could munch off when the sensei was present, and when she wasn't explaining something new. Luckily all she had to practice on was making the Ram seal and making sure the chakra flowed evenly through all her pathways.

The waiter of the cake shop moved closer to her with a teapot on a tray, the fuming contents smelling like bergamot. He gently poured the tea in the nearby cup, before winking.

"I find that tea helps people relax and enjoy their food more. It's on the house, no worries." He added a moment later.

"Thank you." She replied with a light stuttering, before taking a sip of…bergamot tea? It was already sugared, and it nearly scalded her tongue by how hot it was. Still, the general flavor of the tea wasn't bad.

"Something's worrying you, miss?" The waiter asked with idle curiosity. The shop was basically empty except for her, so she supposed the teenager was simply making some conversation. Maybe he wanted to find out what ninja life was like too.

"Nothing much." She replied, before muttering, "It's nothing." She added, more to reassure herself than anything else.

"Well then, no need to murder a cake." The teenager replied with a chuckle, "weren't you in the group with the others for the 'conquer the world' thing?"

She blushed at that. Leave it to Totsuba to give out a lasting impression of strangeness to everyone. Of course the waiter had to remember that. The thought of Totsuba and the others brought a small pang of pain to her chest. It wasn't like she was feeling lonely; well, she hadn't much spoken to anyone else except the grocer in a long while, but it wasn't because of loneliness!

The longest conversation to date was this meager chit-chat with the waiter of the shop, who was probably speaking to her only out of pity.

"Yeah but they're all training out of Konoha: got stuck in a different training camp, so I ended up being alone in here." She replied in a low murmur, as the waiter made a thoughtful face.

"Never thought of transferring to their training camp?"

"Classes are fixed in numbers." She replied quickly, "They probably wouldn't be able to transfer me."

"But there are multiple classes of same years, right?" The teenager shot back, "Transferring in the training camp would at least let you see them for the meals and the free time, right?"

She looked at him warily for a second, before thinking it over. The training camp she had been in last term had been able to house hundreds of people. Of course she didn't know if the second term had smaller camps or not, but if they were built with some sort of sense, than wouldn't it be normal to be pretty much built in the same way?

"I never thought about that." She muttered, "I should look into it."

The waiter shrugged, before moving to bring the empty tray back behind the store. She was left alone to think now, and as she did she realized she had no idea how the transferal process could work.

She had been enrolled by her caretaker after all. Should she be going to the administrative building? Should she speak with a chuunin-sensei? Should she see the Hokage in person? It was then that something made her groan: she had an entire apartment complex of shinobis all that had the same meeting hall and general use kitchen. They even shared the bathrooms per floor!

She finished her cake quickly, before moving on to drink the tea that had cooled off in the meantime. Finally she stood up, reaching for the counter to pay. The small bronze bell on the counter was pushed, as the sound of jingles echoed through the shop.

The taller man, probably the father of the teenager, came out with a half-smile from the back while clapping his hands.

Truly, the tea was on the house. As she left the cake shop, she kind of wondered why they didn't seem to have that many clients around. Maybe it had to do with the location, considering it was further away from all the main streets of Konoha. Still, it appeared to have been kept afloat for many years, so there was no way it would end up being closed so soon.

At least she hoped. She bit her tongue halfway through the street towards home, when she realized she hadn't asked the name of the waiter. Well, next time…which had to be a couple of days further down the road if she didn't want to roll her way through the following terms like the Akimichi heir apparently was planning on doing.

She hummed a tune to herself, as she entered her room in the apartment complex. Everything was fine. After that one episode there hadn't been another attempt of the sort. Whatever madness had taken the intruder in question it was now probably over.

Somehow she had even come up with a plausible reason for it: the previous owner of the apartment was a bastard, and did something wrong. The unknown intruder hadn't known of the change of ownership and had come over to trash the apartment. It still didn't explain why the intruder in question had to leave her a light scar on one of her cheeks, but it didn't much matter now.

She looked over at her calendar, and groaned. Her bath hours were in two hours. She wasn't even sweaty to begin with: the collecting of chakra and the understanding of chakra in their surroundings was as useful as it was completely a waste of effort. There was just nothing to it that even pointed out at 'sweat' being involved.

Mostly it was a 'sit down and concentrate'.

It was starting to get on her nerves, actually. Was anything _remotely_ interesting ever going to happen to her?

Dimly, she looked around for a book to read. She was tired of the usual trashy novels that came for cheap in bundles. They all had basically the same plot: sad sob backstory of a strangely wonderful girl, suddenly something brings the girl elsewhere, said girl meets prince charming and loses any and all previous backbone, and then the prince saves her and they live happily ever after. At the fifth story of the kind she had deemed the rest of the books worthy of being brought down to the heating system and flung inside the fire.

She made a decision then: she could try and look in Taifuu's apartment for something to read, it wasn't like they were strangers, and he did leave her his spare key, just like she did for his. She was out and walking downstairs in a few minutes, making Taifuu's key in her hand spin quietly. A couple of times a door peeked open along her way, only to then close again. A lot of shinobis in the apartment complex were outright paranoid, but it wasn't all that bad. Still, it didn't explain how someone had managed to enter her room once. Maybe it was an old resident, and nobody had deemed it worthy to stop him?

Still, the Uchiha's police would look into it...and with that, she finally entered Taifuu's room. She stopped and blinked for a moment.

His bags were there, carefully emptied of their contents that had been seemingly put back in their place. The most disturbing thing was that the apartment was perfectly pristine and strangely, it appeared it had even been _cleaned_. There were no traces of even a speck of dust, and was that a new book on Chakra exercises sitting on the table?

She hesitantly took a couple of steps inside. Didn't Taifuu leave? Did he come back already? If he had…why hadn't he come to see her sooner? She was pretty quick in hovering over the library of Taifuu's, just next to the…

She flinched. She stopped for but a mere second to look at the empty spot in the wall.

There was supposed to be the small hand-made shrine of his father there, in the empty spot that appeared to have been hastily cleaned. It was just like…someone had broken a bit the floor and then hastily had done its best to repair it.

There was a soft carpet also, light green and dark green, with the dark green forming the Konoha's leaf symbol upon it. She didn't recall him having any of this before. Intrigued, she moved towards the book she hadn't seen before, and carefully pried open the first page.

There was a single written word on the dedication page. It was a single kanji, written in red. It was the Kanji for the word _Love_.

She shivered as she quickly spun on her feet, looking behind her at the slightly ajar door. Hadn't she closed it? She ran out of the room, her head turning to the right and to the left of the corridor with fright. There was no-one. She was just imagining things. Then why did she feel fear for a brief second in the room?

She steadied her breath a few seconds after having left Taifuu's room, turning back just in time to close the door behind her. Quietly and hesitantly, like she was expecting to be attacked again, she made her way back to her room. She hadn't even taken a new book with her, but right about then, she didn't even want to think much.

Expect maybe get in her bed, and hide beneath the blankets. Someone had to have gifted Taifuu with that stuff: someone who apparently had an unhealthy idea of what love was, considering they had to have broken in to deliver it. The disappearance of Taifuu's father's shrine only held up the theory that whoever it was, it held a hate for the boy's father. She had to do something about it, before it became too big of a problem. It was on the stairs that she made her decision: instead of going upstairs, back to her room, she began to walk downwards trying to reach for the outside.

She'd go and talk with the police, and if they wouldn't want to listen, then she'd outright get an appointment with the Hokage himself! Sure, she might have to wait months for the Hokage to free some time, but she wasn't going to let some sort of psychopathic individual get away with…with whatever it was that they were doing!

She was halfway through the flight of stairs, when a great strength pushed her from behind. She could barely scream as she brought her hands forward to deaden the blow against the stairs. When she hit the ground hard the first time, she began to roll, the wooden surface ramming into her body with every time she ended up spinning. The world appeared to be twirling around her as it finally came to rest when her back hit against the surface of the floor beneath. She lay there ranting for air, as her blurry vision barely saw the figure of the assailant on the upper level.

She could only see the figure barely, but by the way it moved…it was a ninja, the forehead protector glistened in the light of the dying sun, with long hair.

As her eyes closed and she heard sounds coming from nearby, probably of people coming to investigate, she couldn't help but curse inwardly: she really had to go and think that life was boring right then, didn't she?

_Southern Hi no Kuni – Taifuu Shimura_

Blood poured down from the beast in front of them. A wooden trunk slammed fiercely in its sides, sending the otherwise untouchable grizzly bear to wobble, staggering from the hit. The moment was all that Okito needed to plummet from one of the higher branches downwards. A scream left his lungs as he did so, tears of fright leaving his eyes. The snout of the bear sprinkled more blood on the boy's already battered form, but by then the red haired boy was already retreating, swiftly followed in tow by Benika who had sprung the trap.

He held his own kunai quietly, waiting for the bear to regain his bearings and move. For a moment, the bear outright appeared like he was about to cry, a strange pitiful whine escaping the giant beast's throat. Some sort of silent musing to the world probably. The map had been wrong.

He had no doubt on it: the map was a devious invention by an otherwise sadistic sensei to make them pay hell on earth. First of all, the destination wasn't as remotely safe as it was meant to be: because it wasn't a training camp. It was just an incision on a rock that claimed that all 'smart-asses' that had reached it by cutting on the map's directions would have to fare better: the training camp was somewhere along the map's directions…it wasn't the destination but it was there. At least the rock warned them that the time limit was nothing more than a lie: they had all the time in the world to find the training camp…damn rock.

That had meant only one thing: they had been forced to retrace their steps. Now however wasn't the time to remember, because with a sickening crunch and a loud growl of pain. The bear's right foot had ended up in another trap: a hole with wooden pikes, sharp enough they had hoped to wound the beast and make it slower.

It wasn't like they were enjoying torturing the animal for sport. It was that they had to eat, and the few berries he had given the other two the okay to eat weren't enough. They needed meat. Of course the only apparently docile animal in this side of the land appeared to be the birds. Since they didn't however have any laces to catch them, or anything for minute tinkering they had to aim bigger.

Thus trunks and bears were at the order of that particular day. Benika had been the one to come up with the plan. Using long leaves knotted together they had hoisted a small fallen tree trunk above a branch. The bear had been baited and now all they had to do was give it the finishing blow.

He slowly changed the grip on his kunai, as his eyes narrowed on the wobbling mass of flesh and muscles and fur. A hit behind the head: break the spine, aim at the neck. That was a sure kill method. Smashing the skull, splitting the brain and hoping that, if he failed, the other two would already be in position to try and distract the bear.

Why was he fighting right about then? He knew the answer of course: it was a matter of _survival_. He had to survive this and make it to the training camp. Alone he could have probably covered far more road: he was the least tired of the three, the one whose wounds healed the fastest and he could probably scavenge something while on the run.

Yet he knew he'd rather die because of the fall, or because of the bear's maws, rather than abandon one of his teammates. He fell downwards, quietly hoping to Kami that the Kunai would struck true. The bear's ears twitched.

"Fuck." He muttered as its head turned towards him. The eyes of the beast locked into his, and he averted his gaze. Blood sprayed on his body from the side of the neck wound as his legs whined for the effort of holding his weight up after the fall. That wasn't a clean kill.

The bear's last roar came with his right paw smashing into him and sending him to roll on the ground. Before he could impact against something solid however, he felt his back hit a far softer surface as hands grabbed him.

"Urk! My powerful muscled stomach is here for this!" Okito whined as he held his steps. "They should make me an honorary Akimichi: my stomach's doing wonders."

Falling on the ground in front of the red haired boy, he coughed out blood and spit as shaky breathes tried to find their way in his half-crushed lungs.

The beast looked at him on the ground, on four limbs like he was. For a moment, he was afraid it wouldn't be enough. For a single second, he began to dread the bear charging at them.

Then it stopped. It lay still shakily on its legs…and then it fell down on the ground, the last breathes coming out raggedly.

"Two tigers. An alligator. A bear. We rock." Benika muttered moving closer to them. He could hear her voice come out softly, "But we need to find a damn way to keep the food from spoiling."

"Now you're…talking…" Okito whispered back. "You alright Taifuu? You did jump back to deaden the blow right?"

"That theory is completely wacky Okito." Benika murmured, "He's going to make it right?" She queried, worry lacing her voice.

"Yeah. No bleeding…but I'm no medic." The boy replied, "How do you feel Taifuu?"

"Let me sleep for a while here…" He muttered, "I'll skin the next one we hunt…"

"Thought you'd say that." Okito replied with a light tone, before heading over to the bear. With the back of his eye, he could see the boy starting to take away the fur.

"Want some berries?" Benika asked sitting next to his laid down form. She was the one with the jacket that held more pockets and that had made her the 'storeroom' of the few berries and mushrooms they had picked and were safe to eat.

"Not hungry." He muttered back, his breath still shaky. The forest was surprisingly peaceful, and as the adrenaline left his body he couldn't help but feel relief. They'd certainly make it, wouldn't they?

As his eyes closed, the last thing he saw was a peculiar glint of metal coming from a tree nearby.

His eyes opened in shock suddenly. He was alone in the clearing, the night having set in and the carcass of the bear laid to rest in a corner. Benika and Okito were nowhere to be seen.

He winced as he slowly tried to stand back up, actually managing it with little pain. Sure, he still had to grit his teeth like his life depended on it to avoid screaming in pain, but it was far better than feeling a weight on his lungs.

Quietly his eyes adjusted to the darkness, as he worriedly looked around him. There wasn't even a trace of his two teammates. They had…left?

Something stuck deep into his throat, before he shook his head with enough strength to make him cough out blood once more. No. They wouldn't have left him for nothing. Something had to have happened. Maybe they had gone to the bathroom?

They hadn't even lit up a fire and they weren't on the nearby branches. He heard a bush twitching, and as his hand reached for his kunai…he realized he didn't have it. The bush departed as he took a single step backwards. A fierce black mane with glinting red eyes looked straight ahead at him. The low threatening growl that came from the wolf was more than enough to freeze him on the spot.

He was weaponless. He had been so keen on keeping his weapon always with him, and now he was weaponless. He had to do something. He had to leave at least!

The wolf sniffed at him for a moment, before turning towards the bear's carcass. If he didn't move, then maybe the beast would go, eat, and then leave him alone. Taking another step back wouldn't be too much of a problem just to be sure.

The animal did just as he had thought: heading straight for the meat and ignoring him. He was still feeling under the weather, his breathing shallow: there was no way he'd be able to fight off without weapons a wolf. Maybe he should have remembered from one of his father's books a far more important lesson, as he turned to leave.

Wolves usually didn't travel alone. As he came face to face with another snarling predator, and its companions, he had no choice but to gulp and stare. Slowly his eyes moved to the closest tree. If he could climb it he'd be safe: wolves weren't bears, they had no way of climbing up trees.

Maybe it was that first thought that had made the shinobis of Konoha decide to stick to trees: attacks coming from above, avoiding dangerous beasts that couldn't climb and getting an advantage over the enemy. It made sense. The point was finding a way up.

The first step he tried to take was met with a stronger growl from the wolves in question. They were surrounding him, ready to take aim and probably snap their maws against his neck to kill him there. That was something he couldn't let happen.

If this was some sort of wicked Genjutsu conjured by whoever was examining him, then he was going to have a word with said shinobi afterwards. How did they expect someone like him to win without weapons? There was nothing around him! Only the dirt hole where the bear's paw had fallen before was barely within his grasp! Wait a moment.

The wooden pole in the dirt hole had to be there. At least, that was what he hoped was true. If it was, then he'd at least get a fighting chance. The only problem was getting close to it without alerting the wolves. He had two choices: slowly or quickly. If he made a dash for it, then either the wolves would outright attack him, or they'd be scared enough to give him the time to get to it.

On the other hand, if he went slowly, then maybe they wouldn't attack him immediately, but they certainly would end up surrounding him.

It was a hard choice, but seeing how time was trickling down he made it surprisingly quickly. He screamed as he launched his body towards the hole, throwing his arm inside to extract the wooden branch turned pike. The wolves were on him in a second, but holding the weapon close he managed a hit on the first one, piercing through the beast's neck long enough to scream himself back on his feet. The others began to circle him growling, as he held the bloodied stick in front of him, gasping for air from the effort. His chest was constricting once more from the effects of the brief scuffle, and now things appeared definitively soured.

The bleeding to death wolf muffled low growls, as two of the pack sniffed his corpse before looking back at him with hate in their eyes. Was it possible for a beast to feel hate? His back touched the bark of the tree and he stopped.

It was now or never. He flung the wooden pike and turned around to jump on the tree bark, desperation doing its best to bring him up. His hands grabbed onto the wooden surface like claws as he made his way up, towards the first branch.

He hadn't considered that wolves knew how to jump. Midway to the branch, he felt a sharp tug at his side, forcing a scream out of his mouth as he held on for dear life to the trunk: if he fell, it was over. He couldn't slow down to breath, and he didn't.

The first branch looked like a safe nest to him, and when he finally reached it, with wobbling hands, he collapsed onto it to regain his bearings.

A wolf had managed to wound him on the right side, tearing apart pieces of his shirt as well as making him bleed again. Blood was clearly dripping down his leg, as well as there being a red line on the bark from where he had climbed upwards.

He took his moment of peace, before eying wearily the pack of wolves that turned on the bear's carcass: far more reachable than him. They all appeared to be hungry and starved, and flung themselves on the meat like the famished beasts they were. Even the corpse of their own kin was eaten away, leaving nothing behind but few scraps and bones.

The noises of the bones snapping made him unable to rest or sleep as his eyes remained half-open while he stared at the grim spectacle. For a second, the bled to death wolf became him in his imagination. Did the other two leave him behind so that they could survive better?

They'd never do something like that, would they?

He had to find the camp…but now he was without map. He hadn't checked, but he was pretty sure they'd have taken it from him: after all they would have needed it to get to the destination.

Quietly, his eyes began to close from the dizziness of the blood loss and from the time. He had to rest and sleep. The following morning, maybe, the wolves would have already left and then he'd end up looking around for clues on where to go.

Without a map, however, his best bet would be to try and find Konohagakure once more and claim defeat over this term.

Yes, that was what he'd do: then, the next term, he'd trust no-one.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

The faint humming of a machine brought her back to the world of the awake. Her eyes settled on the white ceiling of the hospital room, before looking around perplexed. She flinched as she could feel her arms and legs slightly hurt. Why was she in there?

She blinked once, as the memories hit her like a ram. Being shoved down the stairs of the apartment complex was a new thing. She didn't think she had been ever treated like that. It still did prove one theory: the apartment complex wasn't safe at all.

She hesitantly tried to get up, only to blink a couple of time at the bleary eyesight she was currently looking at. A nurse quietly moved closer to her, gently pushing her down on the bed with a soft humming voice.

"Please stay down. You were brought in recently: it would be best for you not to move so soon."

She tried to mumble back something, but all that came out was incoherent. Nice way to go about: ending up on the kill roll of a crazy person and only being able to mumble.

"You fell down a flight of stairs: luckily nothing was broken, but you suffered from a mild concussion and had to be kept under sedation while the doctor worked over a couple of cracked ribs." Cracked ribs? How did she manage to crack her ribs?

"Being an academy student and all there's nothing to worry about: Konoha will cover the expenses. So you can just rest easily, alright?" The voice was cheerful, as her gaze finally returned to normality. The voice had belonged to a stocky nurse in her mid-forties, with light hazel hair and brown eyes, who was wearing a nurse outfit of a light teal color.

"I…Po…Police." She muttered, wincing as she did. "P…Pushed."

"Huh? Can you repeat that, dear?" The nurse asked moving closer.

"P…Pushed…I was…Pushed. Police."

"Oh dear! Wait just a moment and I'll get an officer immediately." The nurse appeared outright shocked as she left the room, but that sudden effort was the only thing she could do before crumbling once more down, her back against the soft mattress of the hospital. The light coming from the open window was blinding, beyond it Konohagakure no Sato was having another normal morning as always, with the grumbling of the crowded streets and the yells of the vendors by the stalls.

Even though near the hospital there was a pretty much rigorous silence, the wind carried the noise from a few streets away with ease. The chilly wind of winter did little to soothe her pain: her arms appeared yellowish and lightly bloated. Didn't the nurse say there was nothing to worry about, that nothing was broken?

Maybe her arms were just sore, that was probably all there was. She groaned as her stomach rumbled. Well, at the very least being hungry was the first sign of being healthy. The door of her room opened quietly a moment later, one of those stern Uchiha policemen walking in with the usual garb of black and red, the fan on the front and the back of his clothes.

A notepad in hand with a small pen, he narrowed his eyes on her figure, before coughing slightly.

"I was told you had something to tell me, Miss. Is that right?"

"H…Hai. I was…pushed down the stairs…It wasn't an accident." She whispered.

"Can you give me a description of the attacker?" The policeman queried quietly, his eyes softening up. She gulped down, before trying to recall something about the attacker.

"It…It was a shinobi. I saw…the glint of the forehead protector. He…He had long hair…I think it was dark, but my sight was blurry…he disappeared quickly." The Uchiha merely nodded, mumbling something about 'Shunshin' and Chuunin.

"We'll take everything into account. Is this the first time said accidents happened?" At the question, she muttered back.

"No…The first days…my room was trashed…I filed a report again." The Policeman nodded, before clicking his pen off.

"Well, is there any possible reason for said behavior? Some grudge or anything like that?"

She bit her lip, her eyes moving downwards. Everything pointed to only one thing after all, but could she say it?

"Taifuu-kun…I was having dinner with him the day they trashed my room and…I had entered his room before being pushed down the stairs…his room!" Her eyes lit up for a moment, "Somebody was in there! They destroyed his memorial shrine to his father and…and _furnished_ the room."

Perplexity settled down on the Uchiha, whose one tomoe sharingan flickered to light for a brief second, before closing off once more.

"Strange behavior…Is Taifuu an academy student as you?"

"Hai…He was…sorted out of Konoha…but his bags were there!" The Uchiha merely twitched a moment his lips in a light smirk, before nodding grimly.

"Until we ascertain if he's actually at the training camp, or if something worse has happened it would be best for you to stay somewhere safe. Your emergency contact is Miss Yugao Uzuki, your mother, correct?" At the mention of the name she flinched, before whispering back.

"No…She's my caretaker until I graduate, but there's no longer a need for her since I'm all set…and she's on a long term mission last I know of…so I'm alone now. All my friends are in training too so…" As she finished murmuring, the Uchiha sighed while slightly shaking his head.

"We will start searching around the apartment complex, and I trust it is in your intention to file an inquiry against unknown for attempted murder. If it's the same charge as the vandalism one and it turns out to be a shinobi, changes are you won't be safe at all alone." The voice was laced with stern and gruff tones, "It is probable he'd try to silence you definitively: for said charges a lot of shinobi have lost their ranks…there can't be rowdiness or scum in the army."

She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a tired breath before quietly exhaling.

"What can I do?"

"At the moment? I will contact with your Chuunin-sensei and see if a suitable solution may be provided. She is technically in charge of the wellbeing of her students." At those words, she suddenly scrunched her face for a second, before distending it.

"I can take care of myself!" She blurted out, opening her eyes wide, "There's no…there's no need to disturb the sensei." She barely said in a low tone.

"Still, she should be informed in order to keep an eye out." The Uchiha replied quietly, "It's her duty." The man scribbled something on a piece of paper, before carefully folding it. "If you recall anything else, please head to the police station and ask of me. I'll personally take care of this case."

He then carefully left the note on her bed-desk, before making a curt bowing motion with his head and leaving the next second.

She winced as she slowly moved her right hand towards the bed-desk, to grab the slip of paper and look at it. Written on the small scroll was a name: Uchiha Kagami.

She sighed, closing her eyes and trying to get some more sleep. Eventually a nurse would come over and discharge her, so it was best if she just slept through all of it. She didn't know how much she slept though, because when she woke up again the sun was far higher in the sky, and there was someone in the room looking at her.

She carefully opened one eye, to stare at the amber like ones of the chief of the medical hospital in question. Tsunade Senju, the name tag clearly red on her right chest area, was an ashen beauty, even in her old age. Her form was that of a stocky woman in her fifties, her hair was a pale blond and tied in two pigtails that descended softly on her back. She was wearing the bright green outfit that marked her differently from the other personnel in the hospital and on her forehead stood a small diamond-like mark. She was apparently looking at her with her breath on hold, because she released it slowly a second afterwards.

"You're awake." The woman slowly looked over the medical charts, before closing her eyes for a second. "What's your blood type?" She asked, carefully.

"It's…A plus…why?" Her throat was slightly parched, probably because of the long sleep.

"Nothing." Tsunade whispered back, shaking her head slowly, "You can be discharged by tomorrow." Then as if on cue, the woman carefully dropped a hand on her forehead, the light and warm sensation of medical chakra touching her gently. She soon zoned out, before darkness embraced her once more in a comfortable lullaby of sleep.

The next morning woke her up with a nurse entering her room with a bright cheerful smile and humming a light tune. She grumbled quietly, before opening her eyes and yawning for a moment.

"Oh my…manners dear: hand in front of the mouth when yawning." The nurse stated, her brows frowning for a second before distending. She was actually pushing a wheelchair in front of her. "Can you stand up now? You slept like a log throughout yesterday, you know?"

She slowly arched her back standing to sit on the mattress, before moving to the side of the bed where the wheelchair was and hesitantly lowering one leg, then the other, down on the pavement. She slid into the provided sandals from the hospital, and wobbled on her feet.

For a moment, she actually thought she had lost her ability to stand, but it was nothing more than a mental quirk of hers. In truth, she was perfectly able to stand without problems.

"Hum…Good!" The nurse exclaimed, a bright smile filling her face, "If you can stand and…walk around, then there's no problem in discharging you immediately." She nodded to the nurse's words, before looking around for…her clothes.

"Ehm…excuse me, but my clothes?" At the question, the woman tapped her forehead with the palm of her hand, making a light smacking sound.

"I'll get them as fast as possible! Please wait here." She frowned a second as the nurse left. Where was she supposed to go, out of the window? She was only clad in the hospital gown, and it was kind of breezy too.

Rolling her eyes she sat back on the side of the bed waiting. Her stomach took that cue to growl. She hadn't eaten at all the day before, and now it was clearly starting to get to her. She just had to wait a couple of minutes more, then the nurse would come back, and she'd get her clothes.

She hoped they had her stuff too: she needed her key to get back to her apartment room and grab her wallet after all, if it was still there.

A couple of minutes idly passed by, before the door opened again to reveal a red haired woman. Her features were surprisingly soft for being a shinobi, and a chuunin-sensei at that, especially when she looked at her. She was holding a bag under her arms, but appeared to be more concentrated on her hair at present. She knew her hair was white: there was no need to keep on looking at it.

"Sensei?" Katsu queried, perplexed that her teacher had taken the trouble of coming to the hospital room. Shouldn't she have been training with the other children?

"Oh right!" Kushina exclaimed, apparently getting over whatever sort of trance-like phase she was going through, as she handed over the bag. "Your clothes! They got me to deliver them, dattebane."

"Dattebane?" She queried perplexed, arching an eyebrow as the woman apparently started to fuss over, eating her words midway.

"Oh right! Right! Sorry, kind of verbal tic of mine." She sheepishly muttered, before shaking her head, "Anyway! I've been warned by the police: why didn't you tell me about this?" Her question came in a surprisingly soft spoken voice, surprising her.

"I…I should have?" She queried back, albeit answering a question with another question wasn't extremely polite.

"Duh! Of course you should have!" The woman exclaimed once more, "I'm your sensei! It's my duty to care for you for as long as you're under my guide!" At those words, she merely shook her head.

"There's…There's no need, really. I can take care of myself."

"If this is how you do it." The woman retorted snappishly, looking around the hospital room, "Then you're better off not staying alone. Where's your mother?"

She flinched, recoiling slightly at those words before snapping back.

"She's dead alright! My caretaker is on a long term mission, so yeah, I'm alone and fine with it!"

"Oh…" The look of pity on the woman's face was enough to make her tic once more. She didn't want anyone's pity. She didn't want anyone looking at her and muttering things like 'poor thing' or 'orphan' or 'that sad child'. She wasn't actually alone. She had friends. She was going fine at the academy: there was no need at all to start fussing over her.

She needed no smothering by anyone.

"Oh my ass." She muttered darkly. "If there's nothing else, I'm going to change now." She added, quickly removing her hospital gown and starting to change in her clothes.

"Fine 'ttebane!" Kushina yelled back, "You're coming to live with me!"

She stopped changing for a second, blinking owlishly at the woman's words.

"_Eh_?" What sort of twisted logic was that!?

"It's my duty as Chuunin-sensei to take care of my students. If you have no-one else to guarantee your safety, as long as you are under my care I'll have you live with me. There! Now finish dressing up, then we'll go pack the things you need! I've got just a spare room you can use." As the woman kept on speaking, her head began to feel like covered in wool…was the woman really serious? She could take care of herself! There was no way she was going to go and live with her sensei! They barely knew each other!

"And Sakura's going to be happy to have a friend her age to talk with." The woman had yet to stop talking. Wasn't her own opinion valued in this one-sided conversation?

"I…"

"Alright! Let's get going then!" As the red haired woman actually grabbed her by the arm, she instinctively tried to make some sort of resistance. Said resistance turned useless however, because even though the woman didn't appear to be filled with muscles, she was strong enough to pull her alongside her all the way out of room and towards the exit.

"And we'll have a party tonight, dattebane!"

She groaned. She wasn't used to…to this sort of excessive intrusion in her normal life. It was just for a couple of months she supposed…it couldn't be all that bad.

And maybe she could get some extra training in?

Well, on that side she could actually try.

The butterflies in her stomach however were making her sick. This was so embarrassing! Couldn't the woman let her walk at least at her own pace!? Did she really have to pull!?

_Hi No Kuni Southern Province – Taifuu Shimura_

It was raining. The deluge of water that was pouring down from the sky had abruptly lowered the temperature, yet in the small cave he had found after removing the inhabitants, a colony of bats, he was mildly dry and warm. Mildly because some drops of water still managed to fall on his ruffled hair. He hadn't seen Okito or Benika at all. He hadn't seen anyone else to be more precise, even after climbing up above the treetops, trying to navigate himself.

In the end he had decided to move North-West. Konoha stood in regards to Hi No Kuni to the east of the land, a little bit more to the South than to the North, but they had gone South with the rest of the group, so it was normal.

He just had to get near it, there the patrols were thicker. Someone would find him and he'd be alright. He had been forced to drop the small wood branches he had been carrying, since the water had made them useless. It couldn't have rained after a bit of a warning of course. It had to immediately start a downpour of epic proportions.

It was like life itself had decided to take him and make his life a living hell for the time being. How long had he been lost? Days? Weeks? Months? He now kind of understood Okito's desire for a warm bed: if he ever survived, he'd get one. No. No 'Ifs' or 'Buts'. He'd _survive_.

He would survive this, whatever _this_ was, and get back home alive.

Home…that was what? A one room apartment? He didn't like his father's home at all. It was so cold, so impersonal…it towered over him. Maybe he was looking at this the wrong way. Maybe he should have been looking for his teammates immediately, but they hadn't been near him at all.

He groaned quietly as he laid his back to rest against the cave's surface. He was without fire, but the bloody pelt of the wolf he had killed was enough to keep him lightly warmed up. He had been forced to carve it with the use of the bear's claws, and his hands were still ruined up to this day from the effort.

Callouses weren't even the top of his pains. The wound on the side had scarred, but at least it had closed quickly. He didn't know if it was due to his highly clotting blood, but at the very least he didn't have to worry about infections. It was a big plus, considering where he was: lost in the middle of nowhere.

The small bone knife he was wielding was a crude work, nothing more than one of the bear's ribs sharpened with a rock, but it was better than nothing. He should have slept on a tree, as he usually did, but the rain and the risk of lightning had forced him down in a cave.

He just had to breathe in and out slowly, relaxing and letting the tiredness drown him in the kind embrace of sleep. He should have kept vigilant, but he needed his sleep.

The rain kept on howling at him even when he woke up, and as he glared at the sky he found himself mumbling.

"Of course there has to be rain: can't see the sky, can't see the stars and I can't see the sun…day of boredom." He muttered, looking around the cave for anything he might have missed the night before. Of course, except rocks and a couple of fallen leaves probably brought in by the paws of the previous occupants, there was nothing else worthy of notice.

"Stuck in a damn cave with nothing." He added in a low grumbling tone, standing up and starting to walk in a circle within the cave.

"Damnable rain and all…" His right fist hit against the cave's walls, before he took a deep breath.

"Well. I could try and keep on going." He pondered, "Might just get more lost, and maybe I'd even catch a cold." It would be a first for him to catch a cold, actually.

"If I stay here it might just keep on raining until I drown." He added carefully in a low murmur. "Better to move."

He whispered more to convince himself than to drive home the point again. Slowly, he crept to the exit of the cave, taking a look at the falling rain. He could do this.

He'd get back home in time, and instead of eating raw meat he'd have a cake.

Instead of mushrooms, he'd eat ramen. Instead of drinking…drinking!

"Stupid! Stupid me!" He snarled. "I need to get more water and I'm letting this occasion pass on me!"

His hand went to his bone weapon, as he dashed to the closest tree to start scratching against the bark. It wasn't the steel of a kunai and the work was incredibly more difficult than expected, but when he did get a large square of bark out he swiftly flexed it into a small concavity.

He began to drink from it at intervals, as the water pooled within its emptiness. The season of rains in Southern Konoha wasn't going to let him down. At least, he hoped that was the case.

On the other side he kind of hoped it wasn't the case, because he had no idea how he'd survive with all the water that normally came down.

His steps trembled slightly as he began to walk, drenched to the bone, forward. He had a vague sense of direction, but after all his true purpose was to find a road, and from there to keep on going. There had to be a road eventually, if he just kept going in one direction.

Two weeks later, he began to think he was walking in circles, his food all but composed of berries and mushrooms was rationed, and he had started to believe that with the amount of water that was coming down he'd find out that fishes had begun to grow alongside the trees. A fish tree.

The thought made him chuckle, although it was a happy chuckle at all. It was a grim one.

Two weeks without human contact had made him decide that indeed, trees were his friends. Some talks a lot, while others merely whined about their roots.

"I say you're really pretty." He muttered to an Oak, "Never mind what big bad Pine says. He's just jealous because he isn't as tough as you."

The fact that Konoha's forest could withstand all the tree variety had to do with the Shodaime; that much the history books always explained. He could grow any type of tree and make sure it kept on growing even in the harshest of conditions.

The ground was slippery and that was when it was in its best conditions, but still he kept on going. The rain had barely stopped for a couple of minutes once. During that time, he had been too stupid to go up and check if he was going in the right direction. For all he knew he could have ended up in the direction of Kumo or Kiri or Kusa or Suna even. Well, no. Suna was out of the question because the land of Wind was a desert. It abruptly became one a few meters off the border, so it couldn't be.

It was with hesitant steps that his feet trudged on a muddy dirt road.

A muddy dirt road that should have probably been dried off, because it made people, like that caravan over there, stop and wait for the rain to pass before moving towards villages like Shukuba or Tanzaku town for example. He stopped for a second.

He blinked carefully.

That wasn't a mirage was it?

That was actually a caravan of people heading towards a village.

From there he could actually take a trip all the way back to Konoha.

If they wanted him that is…

It was as he neared the caravan that he realized just how much things appeared to be going fine. There was a caravan. He was going to get back home. A caravan waiting for him right there in the middle of a dirty road.

It took him a moment to realize that the caravan didn't have horses, or animals to push it. As he neared, he actually began to sweat out from the nervousness, because it wasn't just standing there on the side of the road in wait: it was overturned on the side of the road.

Overturned and with holes on the fabric that usually kept the charts' goods covered, and burn marks were visible alongside the wheels. The shattered wheels of the few remaining charts were a clear sign that somebody had to have broken them.

If the splinters and the few remains of wood weren't enough of an indication, he got his confirmation on what had really happened when he found the first body.

At the second…he was sure of it. The small chart had to be of a couple of travelling merchants, probably they travelled in groups of five or six, because there were at least four sets of wheels laying around on the grass. They had to have been assaulted by bandits.

He didn't know how long ago the attack had occurred, but the road was there and it was raining. Shinobi still did patrols under the rain: that much he knew. At the same time he also knew the caravan couldn't have started her travel under the rain, could it? Unless they were transporting precious cargo that had to be delivered swiftly, there was no reason for them to embark on a travel during the rainy season.

He took a deep breath, before starting to rummage through the stuff of the deceased. They wouldn't need it: he would.

The bandits had picked clean most of the stuff, but had left behind enough rubble to make clear just what the merchants had been bringing around.

_Weapons_. A couple of caltrops caught his eyes just in time for him to avoid stepping on them, while small barbed wires stood harmlessly on the ground nearby. Quietly he began to scan around: maybe he could get something more decent than a bone rib as a weapon.

The drenched and torn clothes of one of the corpses became a made-up sack for the caltrops and the barbed wire. He actually found a couple of kunais and small knives littering the ground. Whoever had grabbed the stuff had probably broken a barrel or a crate. Now he was armed.

If only any of the guys actually had an umbrella, he'd have been in heaven right there and then. Unluckily, none had one. He did break off the cloth from the chart, the strong winds menacing to make it fly away as he did his best to cut stripes of it and form a sort of turban.

With that at least his eyes wouldn't get as much water as they were getting now. Now the point was to follow the road or not.

If he didn't, then he'd probably end up lost once more. If he did, then there was the pretty real risk of ending up ambushed by whoever destroyed the caravan, if this was their area. He was actually torn.

In the end, he decided for a compromise between the two: slowly inching towards the forest, he began to walk alongside the road, but standing between the trees.

Worst case scenario, he had ended up on the wrong direction towards Konoha and would end up ambushed nevertheless by the bandits. Best case scenario, he'd arrive in Konoha safely.

The rustling of a nearby branch took away his choice.

Fate is a whiny, pathetic, lurid bastard.

He barely managed to hide behind a tree's trunk, when his eyes settled on the form of a man with a bow strapped to his back. He looked so…uncouth, dirty and grim. His eyes were fixed on the road, and hadn't he taken this side of the road, he wouldn't have probably seen him.

Hadn't he been careful, the man could have probably killed him…or maybe this was all a test to look at his mettle? The rain was thankfully drowning most of the noises, and with the low visibility, the man hadn't seen him. He too needed to keep narrowing his eyes to see through the downpour. The man turned around, muttering something that was hidden by the deluge, but not by his ears.

"Last time I lose at dices." The man's mutters became slowly more distinguishable as time passed; his figure slowly became more delineated in the rain falling. He could do this. He could reach the man quietly, passing behind the tree that held him. He could quietly climb, gritting his teeth hoping the man didn't hear the sounds of his knuckles rasping against the wooden trunk. He could do this.

Yet it would have been a risk. Silently he waited.

Quietly he watched. As the rain kept on falling and falling down on him, he held his breath when his nose caught the coppery smell of blood. Even under the water pouring down it was still a pretty vivid smell. Suddenly the archer on the branch flinched, before carefully jumping down from his spot, his bow slowly moving to tension.

"It's me you asshole!" A sharp voice bellowed from the other side. "We got some new meat at camp." He added. "New girls to break in and boys to have fun with if you're on that side." The man added again, "They're having a dice round to decide who gets who. I've got dibs on the pretty little thing that came yesterday."

He quietly listened on as the other man whined about being on duty. It was just a thing of a second, and then the one with the bow began to hand it over to the other.

Once that was done, the blood smelling man began to climb the post, while the other headed off deeper into the forest. He knew what to do now at least. 'Camp' could be the training camp after all. Maybe this was all a ploy to get them to pass through. He circled around the sentinel's tree, moving behind the other man who appeared to be in a rush, because he didn't quite slow down until he reached a certain steep cliff a few miles forward.

Now, one might think that bandit camps are made up of a wooden palisade, or of tents and a fire in the middle. Some might think it's an ensemble of wooden houses perched on trees or things like that. The answer is no.

A bandit camp is a scrawny 'get-together' of scum who doesn't trust each other. There's no drinking around and no sleeping happily. Everyone stands under a couple of large trees that keep them out mostly of the rain, while they use ropes to tie down eventual prisoners. The things stolen are either used or sold at small outposts preferably outside of the land they have stolen from, meaning that usually bandits are very active alongside the borders' roads.

He took a deep breath, as he looked at the figures that had been brought in and were currently being beaten down into submission: a beaten up person can't fight back as well as a healthy one. Man or girl it didn't matter, as long as they were prisoners they'd end up beaten up.

It was the people getting beaten up that made him wince. One of them he recognized it as an older boy that had been with the general group before being split off, the other was Totsuba. Next to them stood a frightened Waka, holding herself in fetal position on the ground.

In truth, maybe he should have thought it through before doing what he decided to do.

On the other hand…

The Kunai flew through the air at a remarkable speed. The metal at the extremities coupled with the light but perfectly aligned handle made it a devastating tool of perforation and blood loss. The hit came with a sharp 'slushing' noise, forcing the bandit in question to scream as he turned around.

The second hit got him on the neck line.

He didn't stop there, dropping down on the ground the caltrop bag and reversing its contents in front of him, he made a run backwards. The sharp ears he had rewarded him with the bellowing cries of pain of the other brigands.

He held another kunai tightly, as he scampered quickly atop a tree, noise being the last of his worries at the moment. Beneath him, a couple of brigands kept their run, probably hoping to reach for him and thinking he had gone further down. From his spot, he jumped on to the next tree, carefully holding the kunai's handle with his teeth.

The problem with bandit camps? They were after all under thick branched trees.

He stopped for a moment, to look at the situation at hand. The adrenaline pumping in his body warned him that there were still three brigands around the base, holding down the prisoners to avoid them getting rowdy or trying to escape. His objectives however weren't the other prisoners.

He had to save Totsuba and Waka.

"Look for the shinobis!" The bandit leader yelled, "Keep an eye on the prisoners!"

Totsuba had been tied up next to the other prisoners, while Waka was still in the center of the clearing, being held hostage at blade point. The girl was shivering and probably on the verge of losing it and fainting outright. The older boy had taken the chance to run, he supposed. He carefully slid down the tree trunk on the back of it reaching halfway from the ground, to avoid being seen by the others. If the rest of the gang came back, his plan of escaping went down a long way. He had to think fast and act fast. That was when the idea got to him.

Refraining from chuckling, he grabbed a few of the small knives and launched them on the ground between the two brigands and their leader. As they all turned to the source of the noise, he quickly fell down from his spot, barbed wire between his hands and kunai held in his mouth.

It was, in retrospect, a stupid idea.

The barbed wire slid through the point of the bandit's leader sword, being pushed downwards by the strength of his fall. Doing so did indeed avoid Waka's slitting of the throat, but it also brought the sword down on himself.

He had thought he could jump backwards to avoid it, but the other two hadn't been bandits for nothing. The moment he tried, they came onto him forcing him to stop and get slashed across the chest by their leader. The smug grin on his face was something he couldn't forget…until Waka flung a kick at the man's groin making him wince and fall over. The girl tried to scamper away, only for the man to shoot forward his hand and grab her, before viciously pulling her on the ground.

He felt himself being lifted off by one of the two and punched in the face, before being thrown on the ground a little distance away from the other prisoners.

The thrown small knives were now one less in number, but none seemed to have noticed it. When one of them came onto him, the knife he had in his hand pierced straight through the man's throat, sending him to gurgle to his death as he pushed his body against the other, breaking the knife at the same time.

The bandit leader chose that moment to speak.

"He's just a boy! Come on! I can't believe you're getting your ass handed over by a frigging boy!" Waka chose that instant to bite him in the arm, sending him to mutter a curse before hitting the girl straight on the cheek.

"Stupid little bitch!" The man hissed, before moving to lift his sword and deliver a good fatal blow. A second later and a knife hit him dead-on on the side of the head, throwing him on the ground like a broken puppet. The remaining bandit looked at the origin of the throw and was rewarded with yet another knife in the head.

He barely could stand, when a pair of arms grabbed him tightly.

"I got you Taifuu." Totsuba muttered, "Thanks for the knives." He added cryptically, hoisting him up as he moved to get Waka too.

He tried to gurgle something, but the boy appeared keener on gesturing with his head to the girl to move with him.

"Let's get going before they come back…we'll speak of how much I'm cool with throwing knives when we're out of here alright?" Silently, he had to agree.

It appeared strange how it didn't actually matter that there were other prisoners in the camp. They weren't their problem, were they? If the bandits recaptured them, so be it. As long as he and his friends were safe…he could safely sleep. He'd have to ask Totsuba later how he had managed to free himself though.

Was that the reason to fight and to kill?

To keep his friends safe?

He still didn't know…but out of all of them, that was the sole reason that had made him manage to jump from a tree to another without falling on the ground.

As his sight became blurry, he could only hope that everything was actually fine with the others. He'd ask Totsuba what had happened later…when he woke up.

He felt dizzy as his eyes closed. Was this what 'severe blood losses' meant? Maybe this was the limit of his 'highly clotting' blood: a sword slash to the chest.

In his sleep, his brain sorted through his memories quietly and quickly, dreams intertwining with the images of the bandit he had killed, the blood spraying from the neck and from the back, the yell and the scream of pain. He was a kid. He was just a boy.

Yet he had managed to kill a grown adult with but the element of surprise.

Was that what made shinobis so deadly? The surprise?

He didn't know that. All that he knew at the moment was that he had taken another step towards his goal to make his father proud: he had killed a man.

_**The Hidden screams among the corpses of his friends and enemies: Am I still human? The answer is inevitable: What is human? **_

**Author's notes**

**Not much to say except I'm preparing the road for the second term end. **

**Now I'm still torn between coming up with more stuff for the terms, (there's still third to sixth) or if just let them go forward and then have 'flashbacks'. I personally hate flashbacks, because it's kind of the 'writer's' way to half-assedly add stuff without giving forewarning to it.**

**Enough said. Hope you enjoyed.**


	6. Crossroad

The Twisted Reality 6

_**The Hidden screams among the corpses of his friends and enemies: Am I still human? The answer is inevitable: What is human?**_

_Hi no Kuni Southern Province – Taifuu Shimura_

He opened his eyes slowly, letting the fact that he wasn't under the rain sink in before trying anything more than a startled groaning noise.

His back was resting against something soft, and the crackling of a fire was clearly hearable in his ears. His eyes carefully brought to focus the area around him, and he realized that he was actually _on_ the wolf pelt that he used to wear.

"You alright?" Totsuba's voice came as a light croak, as the teen in question was hovering over the fire with his hands stretched out.

He looked around, finally coming to terms with the fact that, indeed, they were yet in another cave. His eyes blinked for a second, before coming to the realization that his head was resting on something soft and slightly taller than the rest of his pelt. To be more precise, he was resting on Waka's lap.

Said girl was currently biting her lip and flushing red with embarrassment, but apart from that everything seemed in the norm. His mind took a second to try and remember why he was there.

The rain outside was still falling heavily, considering he could hear it from where they were, probably deeper within the cave itself.

"Been better." He finally conceded as a reply, foregoing any question at present about where they were or what was going on.

"Sure you've got questions." Totsuba began quietly, "Hell of a lot of them too."

"I'll live?" He replied with a light smirk on his face.

"Of course! Thee luck is second to none." The black haired boy retorted, "The blade's deepest point was near the stomach, but didn't pierce through. I'd advise against infections but…why worry of something you can't change?"

Waka shot Totsuba a glare, before murmuring.

"Thank you for coming when you did."

"Oh? I…Yeah." He nervously swallowed as the memory of the kunai landing with that sickening noise on the back of the man returned to his mind. The second one being thrown and piercing the neck had been a surprise. He hadn't expected to hit. He had just thought of distracting them.

Distracting them long enough to climb a tree and free the others. The caltrops were meant to keep the bandits cursing loud in the forest, make them slow. At the first death, as he stood there perched above the remaining ones and the prisoners, he had known he had to make a stand, a choice.

The good hero of books would have tried to save everyone, maybe fighting frontally against all of them. The evil hero would have waited until the night, with all of them sleeping soundly…at the expense of Waka and, probably, some other poor girl. Yet he had _chosen_. He had made his _choice_.

Had it been anyone else…he would have waited. Yet Totsuba and Waka were there. They knew each other, and while they weren't pretty much friends, she was still someone he knew of. She wasn't just 'a girl' or 'a prisoner'. She was Waka, and he had saved her because of that.

"We're a bit far from the bandits. With the deluge coming down…they won't be looking for us here." Totsuba whispered, "We're a bit to the East I suppose. Actually our best bet would be heading to Wave considering where we are and where the bandits ought to be."

"Wave?" That was when the thought struck him.

What an idiot!

What a veritable, incredible idiot of epic proportions!

"I'm an idiot." He blurted out seconds later. "I…I was near Wave the entire time." He added. "I…I frigging went North and West in hope of getting back to Konoha, but I was closer to Wave the entire time." He muttered. "I could have gone to Wave, looked for a caravan and then went back up towards Konoha with it."

"Thank Kami for your idiocy then Taifuu." Totsuba whispered, "Me and Waka own our freedom to that."

"Hai." Waka replied with a light nod. "I…I don't want to know what would have happened if you hadn't been there."

"How did you…get captured?" He whispered, slowly flexing his hands before trying to stand up. He flinched at the effort, before leaving his head to rest. The feeling he was having was of his entire stomach to be in flames.

"Stay down hero-boy." Totsuba's right hand gestured for him the very same motion, as Waka instead pushed his shoulders down to avoid him from moving. "I said you were lucky, not that you were undamaged."

For a brief moment, silence ensued in the cave, only the flickering of the flame casting shadows against the stone wall was any indication of the movements. Totsuba's face was pale and caved in, probably the result of malnutrition. Waka wasn't faring much better, and both had their clothes to tatters.

"You know the older guy? The idiot? He had this brilliant idea of going North and 'eventually' cross a road." Totsuba whispered. "So me and Waka obviously being 'ignorant first timers' followed him."

"He got us lost." Waka's voice interrupted Totsuba, "And then it started to rain."

"The almighty Rain season of Konoha's southern province." There was a sigh and the dark haired boy grabbed another chunk of wood that appeared to have dried long enough to be put on the fire. "Lasts months. Months. The brat of course thought we could keep on going, instead of looking for a nice comfy place to wait." The voice was bitter now, as Totsuba proceeded to bring his hands closer to the fire.

"That's when we met with the most dashing thing ever." The boy proceeded to talk, "who turned out to be an A-rank bitch."

"A-rank?" He choked at that, before Waka growled lightly.

"She was our best bet at getting out of there, and the older student merely ignored her! We could have been back already in Konoha by now."

"Yeah." The dark eyed Totsuba nodded, "She was an Anbu on a long term mission. She was kind enough to ask if we wanted to follow her to the closest town…but she made the mistake of telling our older 'teammate' that it would count as a fail for the term. The result? He began to dash off and she just had to point out that we had to keep being three in order to pass."

"So we followed him." Waka muttered, "And the idiot got himself captured by brigands and got us captured by them too." She was clenching her fists as she spoke, practically gnawing on her lips. "I'm hoping they got him for good."

"Anyway." Totsuba remarked, "Weren't you with Benika and Okito? What happened to them?"

He took a deep breath. The first thought had been of betrayal, but now…with that little bit of information it couldn't be. The other thought lurched at him in his stomach, because now he knew how true it could be. It didn't make him feel any better. It made him sick to even think…

"We got backstabbed." He whispered. "I saw the glint of a kunai before fainting." He added slowly, "We were fighting a bear and…he struck me." There was silence as he kept on talking, "They…they…they weren't there when I woke up. I was without the map and without my weapons. They left me to die."

"Benika wouldn't do that!" Waka exclaimed, making him wince.

"Waka! He's not speaking of Okito and Benika! He's referring to a 'they' as in, the backstabbers, right?" At the question, he slowly nodded his head. He felt sick now, for having doubted the two…they could probably be dead by now, no…they surely were.

"So someone played dirty." Totsuba whispered, "You were left there because you appeared dead or so it seemed. Then again this just means that…"

"They're fine." Waka stated more to convince her trembling body, as it appeared she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Of course." Totsuba was quick to correct himself. "It's just that we now have to go and rescue the two." He added, "And at the same time trust no-one else that we don't know."

"You think Chikao's doing fine?" He whispered.

"I suppose so." Totsuba's voice didn't waver as he spoke, "He's probably already arrived and waiting for us to point out how 'late' we are."

They chuckled at that. It took him a moment to finally ask the dreaded question.

"Did I really…kill a man?"

"That you did." Totsuba nodded, "If it can make you feel better, I did that a long time ago too: after a while you just get to live with it."

The tone was dark, and foreboding that it wasn't probably a smart idea to keep on talking about it.

"I must say. You were positively scary when you came down from the trees." He added, "If you hadn't thrown the knives so close to my feet, I wouldn't have been able to get to them quickly."

"I…I wasn't thinking much," he whispered sheepishly, "I just…you know…wanted to help."

"By all means: thee should keep up thy will." The tension diminished just like it had appeared, and quietly bits of cooked mushroom were passed around.

After a while, when Waka was just about to doze off, Totsuba murmured something that made him peak his ears up.

"Do you think they're looking for us?"

"Okito…He had this theory." His eyes closed for a moment, as he related the theory behind Class C, the mortality and it being a pool for the failures of the other classes. "You think it's possible?"

"Hardly." Totsuba's voice was harsh, "That would still be murder in all forms. Maybe you can actually get away from the academy student program. You know? Kind of like making you a Genin through 'experience' and keeping you on doing small stuff like message delivering."

"Then why is no-one coming over to save us?" Waka's question made Totsuba flinch, before he whispered back a reply.

"That which is unknown cannot be countered."

"What do you mean by that?" His question was truly unneeded. It took him just the time to finish it to understand what the boy meant, and when it did, he cursed himself.

"There never was any camp." His voice was filled with disbelief. "This term, it was all about surviving for three months in the wilderness, or getting back to civilization."

"They probably set a safety net over an area," Totsuba kept on speaking, "with the chuunin-senseis stretched thin, they had to decide which teams to check on. They couldn't help all of us out, and probably the Anbu passing by were warned of the term going on."

"And that was why the woman couldn't help us." Waka murmured, "We probably left the safe area, and went out of it. If she had brought us to a village, we'd have lost the term because it was about surviving."

"The bandits were a random event: probably they were just recently settled." The tone was certain even though there was no proof at all it was the truth. "Our best call is saying this was a survival term gone awry."

He groaned rolling his eyes, before quietly closing them.

"Rest both of you." Totsuba's order came gently, but firmly. "I'll take first watch."

The words didn't have to be spoken twice, as softly his eyes fluttered to a close. Maybe he should have thought if Waka was being uncomfortable in that position, then again if she was, she'd just have to move and let him rest where he was.

Darkness overcame his senses, as he lay there apparently immobile. He could see himself sleeping after all, he could hear the soft pattering of the rain accompanied every now and then by the loud booming sound of the thunder. He could hear the crackling noise of electricity moving closer to his ears.

He could, but was it normal? A figure loomed outside the cave, its appearance feral and beastly. It was a wolf with long claws and strong muscles lurking around in search of prey. Its eyes turned towards him, looking at him like they were looking through him, and for but a second, fear was all his soul told him to understand.

Had he understood fear? Was fear nothing more than another term for survival? He didn't know.

He woke up again, the rain still going on, but this time he could at least stand up without groaning in pain. He slowly touched his chest and then left his fingers to trail to where the wound had been deeper. The scar was still fresh, yet it didn't hurt any longer. The sigh of relief that came out from his throat was enough to startle Waka, who turned around to stare at him.

During the sleep she had moved, leaving him precisely as he had thought. Now she was near the fire, while Totsuba was the one sleeping against the cave's wall. A light growling sound came from his stomach, as he felt the heat rise to his cheek about it.

They had to move and eat, or they'd starve there in the cave.

"Ehm…" Waka murmured, starting to look around worriedly, "There's some fruit here." After a few moments, she passed over to him a small pouch made of leaves, something she had to have been working on in the past hours. Within it were roasted nuts and various dry fruits.

He quietly nodded at the offer, before taking a couple from them: it wouldn't do to empty it, would it?

"Ah no. They're already…rationed." Waka meekly whispered, apparently growing flustered and covering her face with the bangs from her hair, "It's alright."

Was she ever that shy?

He nodded back, before proceeding to empty the content of the pouch in his mouth, chewing on it slowly. It had a bitter taste, a mixture of bark and wood with little to no water to gulp it down. Slowly, gnawing quietly, he finally got it down past his throat.

The silence soon became uncomfortable, but all it took was a light snoring sound coming from Totsuba, something that had to do with Jam and Ham being 'Gnam', to change it to a light chuckling sound.

"What should we do now?" His question came with a light whisper, soon followed by Waka embarrassingly looking downcast. Probably they hadn't thought that far, but neither had he.

He simply had no idea what would be the best solution to the problem.

They could try and leave, but with the rain season and all their best bet would be to find a village. They could try and wait for a clear day, and then leave. They could stay until the end of the term, and hope for a random shinobi to start looking for them.

Or they could just…stay there and die of hunger, thirst, or anything else that might happen during their wait. Totsuba was probably silently listening to them, feigning being asleep. He knew the boy was a light sleeper, differently from Okito.

"I don't know." He whispered. "Still…we can't stay here forever, can we?"

"I hope not." Totsuba's eyes opened as the boy sat up, stretching lightly. "Was waiting to hear how you were. We've got to move after all."

"Move?"

"Indeed." The reply came with a light grin from the boy, who merely shook his head a second later, "Our objective, my dear teammates, is to seek a Chuunin."

"I was betting you were awake." He murmured loud enough for the boy to hear.

"Shouldn't we…wait?" Waka's voice was a mixture of a whimper and a kicked puppy, and it strung at his chords just as well as it did for Totsuba's, if his flinching was of any reason.

"No." It was his voice, parched and coarse, that came through. "We have to move. If we stay any longer, they might find us…Or we might become too weak to look for more food, water and shelter…"

"But…" She was positively scared by now. Like if going outside in the rain spelled certain doom.

"Waka." Totsuba's voice was firm as he spoke, "We can stay here if you want. A day, two…then we'll run out of food. The rain will keep pouring. Eventually we will have to move. Moving now is safer than later."

"What if the bandits…"

"Then we'll fight them." He spoke clearly, his eyes narrowing as he cast a hard glance at the exit of the cave, "We'll fight them and kill them and move on. We're going to be shinobi of Konoha, and no matter what happens…we are not going to go down against scum without a fight."

The girl gulped heavily, before nodding and standing up a bit wobbly. She probably wasn't completely convinced of it, but she'd rather follow them then stay behind alone.

"To be brave is to go forward even with fear lacing at your soul." Totsuba remarked drily, moving towards the exit of the cave, after dying out the fire, "but fear is the little bit of sanity your brain has that yells at you: run away you foul, you're out of your league!"

"You are so not helping Totsuba." He remarked drily, giving a glance over to Waka who was following them towards the exit.

"I'm helping alright! My charming presence is all that is needed to encourage those around me Taifuu!"

"You'd be an excuse of a leader, you know?" He replied with a smirk, "When are you getting to become Hokage, huh?"

"I'll…I'll try." The boy answered, "It's my dream. Rule the world, become the best…I'll make it. We'll make it, won't we?"

Waka was behind them, and now she stood next to them. She smiled hesitantly, before silently nodding.

"Yeah! We're going to make it."

"Dattebayo then!" His voice came out with a cheerful sound…

Then the arrows struck.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

The mansion was one of the modern ones. Large steel fences that clearly weren't meant to keep shinobi out, and thus were perfectly capable of with Kami knew what secret traps, a neatly trimmed lawn that probably held more traps and seals than the entire Konoha library, and large open windows for the sun to shine in.

The Uzumaki clan had been one of the most important in all of Uzushiogakure, and its symbol was renowned for being used with ease even by Konoha. The day the village had been destroyed, what few Uzumaki remained had reunited within the shinobi village, becoming in effect one more clan with Kushina Uzumaki at its head. Their specialty in fuinjutsu made it clear that even what looked like a small smudge of ink in a corner was in truth a powerful seal.

Nothing was without danger in the surrounding clan's lands that held as neighbors the Senju clan on one side and the Hyuga on the other, while nearby stood the Sarutobi compound, closely guarded by the land compounds of the Yamanaka, Akimichi and Nara areas. The Inuzuka were just a bit far off, but all in all, the message the area delivered was clear: wealth, power and dignity.

The fact that she, an orphan adopted because of some shinobi to be program, was currently hesitantly walking along a perfectly cleaned wooden hallway of the main house of the Uzumaki clan…that was unfathomable.

She was quite actually trying to decide if she could still turn around and make a run out of there. She was following the red haired woman that was also the clan head, all throughout the house, but at the same time she was kind of wondering if in all of the woman's speaking there was actually a part that would help her navigate the compound.

"…and then there's the spiritual property of chakra…"

She had just kind of asked if she could have trained on the exercises concerning chakra within the compound's grounds. She hadn't expected the woman to actually reply with a cheerful note, maybe too cheerful, and keep up on it…for two hours.

It was like she was trying to get everything she was supposed to learn in three months in just one day. Considering she had told her that it would mostly be that, she wasn't all that surprised. Just the fact it would be mostly theory on chakra, and ending with a try at doing some precise chakra outbursts…it didn't seem much.

"…This here is my room, a bit further down there's Sakura's room and the guest room is just further down the hallway…" Oh, finally a piece of useful information.

The room that the woman opened for her was…well, it was as big as her one room apartment. There was a comfortable king sized bed with curtains, two bed desks, a professional oaken desk, and a drawer. There was more than enough luxury in it to make her stare, with her eyes open and her mouth unhinged.

It was then that she heard a light giggle coming from the clan's head mouth.

"S-Sorry," the woman chuckled, "I kind of made the same face when I saw it the first time." She added, "I was originally sent to Konoha from Uzushio as a token of good will, to train in the academy you know?"

She merely looked at the woman, trying to understand where she was going to go with the discussion.

"When Uzushiogakure was destroyed, the Uzumaki reached Konoha…till then I had lived in a small apartment you know, but with all my clansmen coming around the Sandaime had to give us quite a bit of land. When it was done, I was the first one looking around and it was…it was so overwhelming you know?"

"Hai Uzumaki-san." She replied in a murmur. What else was she going to say about it?

"Anyway! We're not sticks in the mud like the Hyuga in here. So we go on a first name basis! Too much trouble going on with 'Uzumaki-san' stuff…half people in here don't care and the other half will tell you they're too young for the 'san'." She whispered conspiratorially. "So just go with name basis!"

"B-But…"

"No buts! Come on! At least try and say 'Kushina', 'ttebane! Or Kushina-sensei if you feel it's easier."

Quickly latching onto that tiny concession, she suddenly opened her mouth to speak.

"Hai Kushina-sensei."

"Good! Now we'll have to teach you how to go without that too!" As cheerfully as it sounded, there was a light feeling of dread filtering in her stomach. This wasn't going to last of course. So she had to do her best to not attach herself to these 'luxuries'. It wouldn't last.

They'd probably catch whoever was trying to maim her soon enough, and then everything would be solved.

"Well then, for today go around and explore the compound!" The woman's voice was a bit higher than normal, "Tomorrow we'll be starting off once more with chakra exercise…and I'm going to run off now or I'll be late for some boring meeting."

A couple of minutes sitting on the overly large bed of the guest room, and she was positively bored out of her mind. She rolled on it for a while, huffing as she stood up and decided to unpack. Sure, the woman had told her she could explore and go around, but she wasn't a kid and she wasn't going to go trolling around in a compound of a shinobi family. One that was so much prided in Fuinjutsu that had warranted the destruction of their entire village.

It had been Kumo's handiwork, and even with the tentative peace in action right there and then, when the peace talks had gone sour with the risked attempt of the Hyuga's heiress kidnapping, a decision had to be made. A couple of Uzumaki had taken it upon themselves to create a puppet fuinjutsu copy of Hiashi, send it over to Kumo, and have it detonate in a three kilometer blast area powerful enough to leave a smoldering crater behind.

There was after all a reason nobody messed with the Uzumaki's Fuinjutsu's skills. The new Raikage had accepted the strong-armed resolution and stopped pressing forward. He had an entire village to rebuild, and it wouldn't have done him good to keep on trying to go to war…crippled as he was.

As she stretched, her hands went beneath the soft feather pillows of the bed and hit something…hard?

Quietly she rolled over, and removing the pillow produced from beneath it a sort of leather bound thick book. It was opened in a moment, and she stilled at the first pictures that came out.

They were pictures after all. It was a dossier filled to the brim with pictures.

Some were of a pink haired girl holding hands with a blond haired boy, others showed the boy in question standing atop a pile of broken and mangled bodies, for a child's hand it was pretty much well descripted, and defending the pink haired girl.

There were girlish and childish scribbles along many of them, but a couple were what made her stomach lurched.

_So cool! We promised! He's my hero!_

_He killed the bad guys!_

_He's my husband. I'll make him mine again._

_The whore: he's mine, how dare she?_

_Have to kill the bitch soon. No._

_No. No. If I do that it's going to be wrong. He'll find out. He'll hate me. _

The sick feeling didn't end there, because other pictures showed him with dark hair. Some others displayed him with standing embracing the pink haired girl…while among the corpses there was the pretty distinctive head of a purple haired one.

She gulped and quickly closed the thing shut. Swiftly she pushed it straight beneath the bed's pillow and then lurched to her feet.

The figure who had pushed her down had been a shinobi with long hair. What if it instead it had been a kunoichi with long hair?

She knew of the forehead protector, but what if…what if it had been a Genjutsu, like the one Mizuki had used on her and Taifuu?

Oh shit. She had to warn Taifuu! She had to warn him of who the stalker was! As she began to feel dizzy from the discovery, she stumbled on her bag, not quite actually seeing it, and fell on the ground.

That was what she needed to calm down, as a light groan escaped her lips. Slowly she opened her eyes, and something else entirely came to her.

There was something beneath the bed. Slowly, she crawled all her way towards it, pulling it out from beneath it. It was a small bag, but it appeared to have been filled to the brim with…empty bowls of ramen? Socks? Underwear?

The random dirty blond hair scattered throughout the bag…it made her sick. The stench was terrible: a mixture of ramen spices and general sweat, but what made her truly sick was coming to terms with what it really was.

This was all Taifuu's stuff.

This was past stalker. This was mental.

Did the woman know?

Did anyone know of this? Somebody had to have moved to clean this room eventually right? She felt the need to retch, to puke and to empty her stomach. She stood up and left in a hurry, sickeningly looking for the bathroom not so far from the room and entering it with speed.

As she trembling held onto the side of the porcelain walls of the pretty bathroom, her only thoughts went to how wrong this was.

The girl was mental. Yet that wasn't the problem: the problem was that the girl's mother was her instructor for the term…and if she kept being the instructor for the following ones…

The best choice came to her mind a second later. She just had to feign ignorance. Slowly she went back to her room. She closed the bag and put it once more beneath the bed, then quietly dropped her own bags in front of her bed and went out.

One side of her was telling her to act perfectly calm in her 'exploring' the house. Another side of her was actually asking her if she was doing the right thing. The right thing would be get the Uchiha, get on the bad side of the Uzumaki clan, and hope that the entire thing wouldn't be shut down only because Taifuu was the Sandaime's son.

The thing she was doing was cowardly…but she would tell him, next time she'd see him. Then together they might find a way to get her off. Maybe warning her about bringing this to the police? But then again…if she had been the one to push her down the stairs…wouldn't she try it again, now that she was directly in her house?

She couldn't think clearly. She needed to really calm down. As she realized she was walking around the courtyard, she suddenly stilled. She was going to die if this kept up. She just had to leave! That was all there was to say about it: take her stuff back and then leave for her apartment. She'd tell the police she solved the problem and she'd square off with the girl.

Maybe if she explained the situation clearly, the girl would understand? She snorted at her own self-thought question. Of course she wouldn't. She was mad! She…just how did she get Taifuu's underwear!?

If it was her though…if it was her that had refurnished his room, destroyed that altar, given him a book with those words…the question was: why?

Another was most likely 'how' the kunoichi had managed to get where she was without troubles. And why did no-one at all realize there was that stuff in the guest room? They had to have cleaned it before her arrival, right?

Or maybe they hadn't?

Maybe the girl still had to go and clean it? If that was the case…

Another thought lingered in the back of her mind. What if, instead, they had both been onto it? If the Sakura girl and her mother had been together in that…Then what was this going to mean?

It was with trembling hands that she sat down on a bench in the courtyard, and decided to wait out under the sun. Everything was going to be fine…

As long as that pink hair that was so suddenly clouding her vision in front of her didn't make that very same predator-like smile that she was indeed making in that moment.

"Hello!" The chirping and positively happy voice of the kunoichi-to-be was far more shell-shocking than what she had expected. Sure, she had heard her speak with the other clan children, but she had never gone to such lengths.

She jumped up from her seat turning around quickly to face at the girl that had crept behind her so quietly. The girl merely inclined her head to the side, smiling and showing her pearly white teeth before asking.

"You're Katsu-chan, right?" The question was more like an assassin querying its victim, rather than a friendly statement.

"Y-Yeah, your mother insisted I…" she began, only for the pink haired girl to nod eagerly. Her green jade eyes were boring a hole in her skull. It wasn't a good sign.

"I know!" Sakura replied mirthfully, "I've been told everything!" The pink haired girl added with a coy smile, "We're so going to become best friends aren't we?" The tone of the question made it anything but a question. It was firm, borderline psychotic, and probably out of the line.

"Yes…I'd like that." She replied hesitantly, trying a light nervous smile.

She was sweating, and it was anything but the sun's rays, considering they were in for a harsh winter. The girl was suddenly in front of her, having for but a second disappeared in a twirling of leaves.

"Good. And friends don't steal from one another, right?" The girl whispered; her nose was inches away from hers. She could feel the girl's hot breath on her face, and she was torn between screaming and flustering up from the girl's proximity.

"Hu-huh." She managed to croak out, before all the pressure she was feeling came down quickly, replaced by a mere normal girl of her age, who was smiling kindly at her.

"Good. If you know what's good for you…keep that rule in mind."

And with those parting words, the girl went off whistling a happy tune. Leaving her there, to try and stop her hands from trembling.

Was she really her peer of age? She needed training. She needed to become strong. She needed that…if she wanted to survive that mad girl.

She just hoped Taifuu would understand.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

_**The blood in his mouth tasted coppery. The blood pouring from his wounds looked of such a vivid crimson color that he felt positively mirthful about it. Everything around him was red and sprayed in the colors of blood, and the twitching corpses of the deceased gave him nothing less than what he had wanted.**_

_**The pitiful creatures sobbed as their last dying breaths disappeared, and the few remaining words were nothing but curses to the sky against the beast they had unknowingly unleashed.**_

_**It was funny. Their fear had such a wonderful taste.**_

He looked boringly from his spot, in the last row of the classroom, at the Chuunin-sensei assigned to them for their last term. Down below, in the first rows, the pure white hair of Katsu Uzuki was bobbing up and down as she took the teacher's words dutifully. Words were such a positively _annoying_ thing.

His eyes moved across the room, his face morphed in the pure disgust that came from just knowing who was going to pass this term and who wasn't. Of course there were the proud and proper members of the Konoha's clans, all huddled together on one side. On the other he was eying critically at Katsu's new friend, that blond haired girl that made his blood boil in unrelenting hatred.

There had to be a reason why he hated that girl, but he couldn't find it quite clearly: it was like trying to pinpoint which tendrils of smoke made their way to your nose through a fire. Ino Yamanaka was the most positively obnoxious girl that had ever graced the world.

He had half a clue it had to be the blond hair or maybe the blue eyes if only he hadn't had the same color, albeit of a darker shade of blue. Probably she just needed to grow out of it, or maybe she actually needed a Kunai thrown at her back. He was already envisioning stabbing the girl repeatedly, when the voice of the chuunin-sensei took him out of such murderous intents.

"As all of you know, the exam will be the Bunshin. You have already been tested on the Kawarimi and the Henge. So now, one at the time, please come down."

He snorted. Bunshin. A stupid idea of using chakra to replicate an image outside of one's own body…the Henge of a guy who couldn't keep it focused on himself. That was, in little words, what the Bunshin was: the byproduct of idiocy. It didn't save you from death.

It wasn't there to help.

He narrowed his eyes as the clan children all came forward happily and made it. How could they _not_? Nobody actually failed making a Bunshin: it was part of the daily exercises. Heck, it was the only thing they had actually learned in the last term. It was kind of funny…little masses of meat moving to their doom, to become the feast of the wolves.

Yet another name, and then it was his turn. He ignored the stares. They had started since the day he had come back. They had been there and they had remained, and the coldness of some of them…it was bizarre.

Too easy to give the fault to anyone and anything…except on who was truly at fault, right? Too easy.

His hands went through the hand signs with little trouble, and next to him three shimmering images soon adjusted themselves. There was no smoke by-product. Not that the instructor remarked on it, but it was worth more points: of that he was secretly sure.

Making clouds of smoke actually happened when the chakra 'expelled' was used for a jutsu. If it was too much, it vaporized into thick misty clouds. On one side, it was actually helpful to have a cloud of smoke in which to hide, but on the other the loud pop and the white smoke alerted every enemy in the proximity of your presence…and you didn't want that if you were fighting a battle against a hard opponent.

The man smiled, nodding lightly with his head before pointing at a forehead protector.

He didn't snort, although the temptation was there. He merely grabbed the cloth and safely brought it on his forehead, the symbol of the leaf staying in the center of it. It was the traditional style for wearing the protector, and it was the one he preferred the most.

When he walked out of there, he walked out as a shinobi of Konoha, as a Genin of the Village Hidden by the Leafs, as a Ninja, as an adult. He was proud of his spot.

He was proud…but that didn't stop him from heading towards the cemetery first and foremost. He might have heard the cheerful calls of parents to their children or the occasional rant of a kid as he walked by the crowd of parents outside. He was a shinobi. He had no-one, not after that betrayal, and he needed no-one. Maybe he'd get teammates he could live with. A couple of person tried to approach him, but he just returned a kind smile, a wave of the hand, and then was off.

A few girls that had set themselves the task to heal his broken heart and body forced him to disappear in the shadows of the small gutter streets that were abundant in Konoha, in order to get his quiet walk to his destination.

The monument for the fallen of war was there in a corner, yet that wasn't his stop. He kept on walking until he reached the other side of the cemetery, walking among the crypts and the family burial sites and the neatly aligned white tombs. He trudged upon the ground in silence, not daring to disrespect the deceased, those who could finally sleep forever.

Quietly, his feet brought him to an apparently disheveled plow on the ground, with but a single stone to mark what is truly was: a mass grave.

There was the monument for those who died because of war. There was the monument for those who died because of the Kyuubi. There was the monument for the Hokage that served Konohagakure. There were many monuments, all related to some accidents of the sort…but what of those who died without a family? What of those who died charred to the point of non-recognition, of the unworthy, of the poor, of the orphans, of those who could not afford a burial or a grave?

The mass grave was there for that purpose. A single black block of marble showed not names, but a single sentence.

**Here lie those who Kami cherished.**

If there was no family, no-one at all…there was still a god to watch over them after all, wasn't there?

"Well. I got the forehead protector." He pointed out with a chuckle, tapping at it with his left arm. "I caught up with the program in the last term…dead last only because I came in for the last one, but also rookie of the term because I did it without a hitch."

There was silence, of course. Nobody spoke at all back to those who stood among the living.

"I got pretty much everything I needed from _them_ right? What need was there for the rest?" The voice wavered a bit, and he stopped to take back his breath.

"I was an idiot." He hissed, "I was a veritable idiot that got you killed." He added. "I'm not going to make a mistake like that again."

He closed his eyes: he couldn't bear to watch at the stone that held the final commitment of everything he had done, of every consequence to his actions.

"Accidents happen." He gurgled out of his throat, "Damn that man…Accidents like that can't happen." He was sure he was crying, as he held his left arm on his eyes, wiping them away.

"The rules say that a shinobi should show no emotion…the rules say that we should have stuck together…" He quietly murmured. "Why did you have to push me out of the way!?"

He gasped for breath after his exclamation, before shaking his head. "You won't answer me, will you?"

"You had no right to push me out of the way." He remarked, his finger pointing at the stone. "You had dreams damn it! I had nothing but childish ideas!" His right arm swiped in front of him. He was discussing with a tombstone, and he knew it was the only thing that would get that load off his chest.

"I'm not a good person." He cringed, "I'll probably never be a good person again." He whispered, "Kami be damned: how can I take on your dreams?"

Slowly, his breath became calmer as he took in his surroundings. He had yet another stop to do, but luckily there was no-one around there to look at him and his reaction. Normally the kids would exit the academy and be all joyful, heading towards their parents. It took him a moment to chuckle out loud at his thoughts.

The normal kids would exit the academy and be proud of having become shinobi?

What was he? _Different_? What was he, _special_? The thought, the sheer thought of what truly was going on made him feel sick. He probably shouldn't have gone to the cemetery with an empty stomach, but he hadn't been hungry to begin with.

The monument of his father still received flowers every now and then. It was mostly from families who had somehow lost their friends or loved ones to the Kumo war, and with the vengeance that had come from his father they brought flowers to represent gratitude.

He was going to hate tomorrow.

Babbling, snot filled kids. For his own good, he was straddled with the Class-A buffoons. The excuses of a shinobi, the 'best' and at the same time the ignorant. He closed his eyes, his face a mixture of disdain and sneer of disgust.

"Hey dad…I became a shinobi. I have not forgiven you yet." He murmured, "But I will…eventually." He added, sorrow lacing his own voice. "When I'll be older, maybe I'll understand, right?" The question hung in the air; of course the dead gave no answer.

Finally, with a quick nod he left the tomb's premises. He had done his rounds for the day, and now was the time to get back to his apartment. As he turned to leave however, his eyes caught with a peculiar yet familiar color of red, as the woman that had been one of the chuunin-senseis for class-A came on the opposite side of the cemetery. She was holding a delicate bouquet of flowers and behind her was a cheerful pink haired girl. Sakura Uzumaki.

She was too much cheerful for his tastes. How could she just smile and babble about how the exam made her stressed? She had known from the beginning of the term what it was going to be!

He began to walk leisurely, hoping that being diagonally towards them made sure they wouldn't need him to pay attention, or to try and say hello to him for some reason or the other.

"Hey! Taifuu-kun!" He shivered at the name.

The pink haired girl was a veritable blur of agility and…excessiveness as she reached for him wearing a bright red one piece dress kind of made her stand out with her pink hair…like a sore tomato or bull's eye. He didn't hate the girl, but at the same time he knew that whichever team held her, it would be a veritable mess.

Etiquette dictated him to stop, turn with a kind smile, make a light bowing gesture and then pleasantly state a nice conversation starter.

He wasn't much fond of etiquette in here.

"Uzumaki-san." He nodded just curtly, before leaving. His pacing was fast as he left her behind. Probably she was even gaping at him for his so much 'rude' way of leaving. What did she expect? That he'd suddenly warm up to a veritable babbling bitch? He had no idea why the girl appeared to be following him. He had made it clear. He had gone to great lengths to make it clear that he didn't want any girl after him.

He had frigging told the entire class one morning, yelled at them, and still they came. It was like staring at the stamped of bulls running alongside Iwa's plains…the avalanche rearing bulls of Iwa, of course.

He could still hear the light chatter going on behind him, and it was then that it struck him: the girl had been following him outside of the cemetery. He came to a stop just as the pink haired Kunoichi babbled.

"And if I were you, I wouldn't leave you hanging with a curt 'Shimura-san'." Her words came out a bit monotone at the end for the added effect, but he simply sighed rolling his eyes over.

"I am not interested." He snapped back, "I have no time for pettiness."

"I wasn't going to be petty at all!" She exclaimed; her eyes narrowed as she raised her right hand in the form of a fist. It was a moment, but then she took a deep breath and apparently calmed down long enough to settle a far more normal gaze on him.

"What I wanted to say, Taifuu-kun, is that I hope if we end up in the same team that you will try and get along with me and the other teammate." He blinked once at the words.

She was…actually speaking in a serious tone to him? He narrowed his own eyes in suspicion: this was the girl that had apparently become best friends with Katsu and then let the bad influence of Ino corrupt her. He clenched his teeth: that betrayal still hurt.

"Can I have your word you won't actually fawn over me?" He whispered back, "I am not fond of dying and death on a mission because of...childishness."

"You have my word, for as long as I draw breath…" She replied, bringing her right arm to her chest and making a light bowing motion of her head. That, in that precise moment was when his throat lost all semblance of control and he paled as white as a ghost. He abruptly jerked himself away from there with a Kawarimi from a log, and disappeared straight out through the alleys.

That gesture was not good.

That gesture wasn't at all good.

How did she know of that?

He barely heard the rest of the sentence she said, before standing back up to probably realize he was no longer there.

"Except outside of missions where I can…huh?" He wasn't going to stay here to listen to more though.

The road gave way to the stairs, and the stairs to the floor of his apartment, where he crashed onto like a sort of safety net, quietly crawling to a corner of the room.

How did she know _those_ words? But even more wore worryingly was the dreaded question of what had brought forth that change. He tried to recall what little he knew, considering he hadn't been a most cheerful student like the pink haired girl during the last term.

She probably was friends with all of the clan heads. Yet that gesture…those words that she had so easily repeated…

He did his best to try and come to terms with it, until he finally snapped his eyes shut and sighed in frustration. Of course! Knowing _him_ he had to have read a book with that sentence on, and from there it was probable that the girl had read it too.

It was just sheer casuality, a random event in life. Of course it had to be that, it wasn't just possible for it to be anything else but that.

He grunted as he eyed with a narrow gaze at his stuff, all packed up and ready to go: he was a shinobi now and because of that he was cleared to enter his father's house once more.

Once, he had thought the house was cold, stern, unloving. He had been right. The house was just that: imageless. It wasn't a modern and warm house or an archaic and cold one. It was without an emotion. It wasn't as scary as some gothic-looking stone ones or as strange as some of the maddest creations of Kirigakure. It was just there. It wasn't home, just…house.

He still had one week, before he could actually move in: something to do with a test given by the instructor, a test that would determine if he had to repeat the last term. He'd gladly fail it if it meant going back to the B-class or maybe the C-class even.

He heard the soft knocking at his door, but didn't reply. If he did nothing, then it would probably go away. Of course it wouldn't, as the repeated knocking sounds came again, but he at least did try. Slowly he heard the lock being picked and sighed.

Two seconds later, the door was open and a stern looking Chikao was eying him with murder in his eyes.

"Up." The boy pointed out, "Meeting at cake shop."

He groaned, shaking his head as he stood up on his feet. He had forgotten that they had told each other they'd go there to celebrate their passing the class. Chikao had been in class B taught by a certain Tsubaki woman near Konoha and thus if the glint of his forehead protector was of any indication, he had just been promoted to Genin rank.

"Coming. Benika's already there?" He stretched for a bit, before following the other boy along the street.

"No." The boy replied back, "She's with Fukuyo, they aren't talking to you."

"Forgiveness is the harshest thing to obtain, yet it takes but a fleeting moment to lose it." He whispered in a sort of theatrical way.

"I'm sure you'll bore your enemies to death." Okito's voice came from behind them, his forehead protector glinting as he started a quiet walk, "That and of course your most cheerful attitude."

The trio merely walked the rest of the trip to the cake shop in silence, opening the door to find the chaos of the rush hour having engulfed pretty much every table…except one. A single table stood in a corner, with the 'reserved' tag on it. Heading over it, he gave a glance around to the talking and chattering people that were eating slices of cake or drinking soft drinks.

A small wheeze escaped his lungs as he sat down on the chair, his back against the wall while his eyes lingered for a moment next to the waitress of the cake shop. Ayame had started to work the shifts there too, something to do with bringing home some extra money for some reason. He hadn't pried since it wasn't his business to begin with, but it was good to see a friendly face around.

The waiter arrived five seconds later, his red eyes displaying a positive mirth as he chuckled.

"Well, well! We've got ourselves some fine shinobi in the establishment!" The teenager made a light bowing motion, "How may this man assist?"

"Murder me with chocolate." Okito pointed out, nodding vigorously. "And keep the coke coming."

"Pig." Chikao deadpanned once more. "Fifty-nine and water." The fifty nine was merely a blueberry tart with a nice cream filling.

"I'll have a Nine-Nine going from twenty-nine to thirty-nine." His voice carried over to the boy, who nodded before heading off to the cake sections. In the few minutes of waiting, Chikao was of course the one to break the otherwise perfectly normal silence.

"The test."

"You could try and use more…verbs, when speaking about the most important argument we're going to face." He grinned slightly, before listening to what Okito added a few seconds later.

"I say it's teamwork as always…unless they have us kill each other."

"That was Kiri." He replied quickly, "And it stopped years ago."

"Bookworm." Chikao's one word sentence was reinforced by Okito's single nodding gesture.

"I doubt that." He muttered quickly, shaking his head a second later. His left arm flexed gently as he took in the water from the waiter, before quietly starting to sip it down.

"Showing off your acquired ambidextrous ability?" The red haired boy queried, his green eyes merely taking in the apparent ability of lifting stuff with the non-dominant hand.

"I'm just using the left hand. It was closer." The statement shouldn't have been needed, but he decided for the sake of conversation to go with it.

"And the increase in appetite?"

"Are you questioning me Okito?" He snapped back at the boy, who slowly looked away, apparently embarrassed.

"Well, it's just that you disappeared from the third to the fifth term! One year! You disappeared for one year and when you came back they said you looked more dead than alive!"

"Which brings me to query: thee doust real need to beseech me?"

"Look…I'm sorry. I was just curious." The voice appeared sincere, and embarrassed, "We rarely saw each other even in this last term…just wanted to reconnect and all."

"Point." Chikao made a light grin with the single word.

He sighed.

How could he tell when he didn't remember himself?

He knew of the blood of course. He knew of the pain. He knew of the fear.

But he didn't remember.

And somehow, somewhere, a tiny voice was merely claiming that he didn't _want_ to remember.

The worst lies aren't those told to others: they are those told to _oneself_.

_**The crossroads stand in front of him, yet the choice is not the single road. Nine roads stand, but the tenth hidden is his to take: the way back.**_

**Author's notes**

**Chapter's out. We reach Canon days without knowing what happened in term 3-5…and what's up with Sakura? Anyway…**

**Hope you enjoy.**


	7. Growth

The Twisted Reality 7

_**The crossroads stand in front of him, yet the choice is not the single road. Nine roads stand, but the tenth hidden is his to take: the way back**_**.**

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

She slowly opened her eyes to stare at the white pearly teeth of Sakura, who was looking at her with a nice fond smile. Sakura's pink hair had been tied in braids, and her green jaded eyes looked positively happy. She didn't scream only because she was used to this, but at the same time she knew she had yet a long way to go, before even hoping to 'defeat' the girl.

Right about then Sakura decided that she wouldn't speak at all, instead merely walking towards the door and opening it, before slowly closing it behind her when she left. One last meaningful look was cast her way, one that made her shiver, and then the girl was out.

The door clicked close a second later, and she was on her feet scrambling to get washed and dressed. The last term had been hellish. She had finally managed to get out of the 'Uzumaki Horror' Mansion, head back to the orphan apartment and to be on her own…and then the morning hellos had started.

The first time Sakura had done this, she had tried to scream only for her to clamp a hand on her mouth and press a Kunai at her throat, hissing at her to be quiet or die. Slowly it had become a normal thing, but with that…with that came the fact that she wasn't at all happy with the situation.

Maybe she could get out of Konoha, and sleep for good without the psychotic pink haired girl on her tail. Maybe being the case if she could actually get promoted, have a Jounin-sensei who loved far away missions, and that of course didn't want to stay in Konoha.

Even then she had no doubt that she wasn't to become complacent: all it took was a single slip-up, a single glance at Taifuu…and she'd be _punished_. It wouldn't be something overt, but she knew it would be grave indeed.

"You can do it." She whispered to herself, looking at the mirror of the bathroom where her face came back deathly pale and haunted. Her eyes held rings from the lack of good sleep, and her figure was something that the Yamanaka kept on babbling about. No breasts yet, but a slim waist to make the blond haired girl envy her…and decide the two would be worthy friends.

She'd rather die than be a 'puke-friend' with the blue eyed girl, but she needed someone to talk to at least. She couldn't speak to the clan children, but Ino was obnoxious, and Sakura didn't like obnoxious. So she could speak with the 'Obnoxious bee-queen' as much as she wanted…because it was a punishment.

Sometimes her normality came to her when Fukuyo or Benika came by to say hello, or when they wrote letters. She had written back a couple of times, but in the end had to stop that too: they kept on pressing on why she was ignoring Taifuu, and by consequences the other boys, and her reply had been a curt 'Not your business'.

When she got down to the common hall, she grabbed a bowlful of rice from the common fridge and proceeded to cook it, before eating it white without anything else added to it. She had to buy her ninja equipment after all.

If she had been even a bit enterprising, she might have woken up at two in the morning and have headed over to the training grounds to look for discarded weapons. The only problem with that was that she'd have to fight with the people who were up at one o'clock in the morning, and the metal scrappers, and require written permission from the Hokage.

She had nothing of the sort, and getting one was the least of her thoughts. Still…when she was finally done with her breakfast, she headed off towards the academy with the most quiet and submissive posture ever.

"I say you should stand up!" The nasal-like voice that came from in front of her made her wince for a second, before she slowly lifted her head to meet the blond haired Kunoichi to be.

"See? It wasn't that difficult! You've got wonderful eyes, you just need to relax and loosen up." She added helpfully, before moving next to her as they kept on walking.

"Did you read the last fashion magazine I lent you? Have you seen how much that model let her loose? I swear: she turned out to be a fat slob in the latest issue…no, no need to ask, I've already read it so I'll lend it to you." If she knew half of the vocabulary of Ino, then 'fat slob' meant one gram more than one gram less.

"I've got some mascara and some lipstick you should try," Ino kept on babbling, "I'm sure they'd make your eyes stand out…and your hair, well…are you sure you want to keep it white?"

"Yes." She replied quietly, "I'll cover it with a scarf if I need to go on a mission, but I'm keeping it white." The purple dye did cost quite a bit of Ryos…like any other fashion product.

"Uhm…Then we'll definitively need a pretty scarf. Something dark but…mysterious."

How could a scarf, of all things, be dark and mysterious? It was a scarf! She bit back the intention of yelling at the girl, and soon as they entered the classroom Ino was back to speaking about fashion.

The students entered a bit at a time, all early and visibly excited. The only one who didn't was Taifuu, as she saw with the corner of her eye his pale face and complexion, albeit just slightly. Maybe he had a nightmare? She had known he hadn't come back alright from the missing-nins that had kidnapped him, but the boy had no recollection of what had happened. The official story that circulated around was that Taifuu was the sole survivor of the academy student team that had to pass a survival test, and that he had been kidnapped during it and brought into imprisonment for one year. Having freed himself, he had returned to Konoha as fast as possible.

Of course stories on how he had unlocked the Sandaime's strong spirit, on how he had been as wicked as a true shinobi, or things like that made him some sort of hero in the eyes of the population, much to the displeasure of Sasuke Uchiha, who had been the 'king' of the school till then.

The first Taijutsu practice had seen the Uchiha smashed on the ground. A single punch had been all that Taifuu had used. No forms, no maneuvers, no strange or out of the line Katas or things like that. Only a single punch and Sasuke had been on the ground holding his ribs with pain and coughing out blood.

It hadn't stopped there though. In ninjutsu, Taifuu demonstrated all basic academy jutsu to be known without as much as breaking a sweat, and his shuriken and kunai throwing was far above the average of the class. For all that she knew, in that one year of fighting off his captors Taifuu had become a ruthless shinobi, albeit the teachers had talked it off with him simply having been forced to adapt for survival.

Survival, they said, is the best motivator to become stronger.

She keenly waited for their Chuunin-sensei, Iruka Umino, to walk in and start reading off the team assignments. She just hoped she wouldn't end up with either Ino or Sakura. Actually, she would have been fine failing this term once.

"Well then class…the team assignments are as follow." Iruka Umino was the scarred chuunin-sensei that had taught class B all the way till the very last term, before being switched towards class-A because of Kushina-sensei's important business troubles. Of course the official story was that, at least for the graduation ceremony, there couldn't be favoritism shown to her daughter.

A few names and teams rolled by, until she finally caught her name being called.

"Team six, under the command of Anko Yashagoro, will be composed of Katsu Uzuki, Sai and Yakumo Kurama." She gave a little sigh of relief. There was no-one in there that she hated. Lucky her…

"Team seven, under the command of Kakashi Hatake, will be composed of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Kiba Inuzuka." It was then that she felt the temperature in the room lower itself tremendously, as she gulped in fright. She knew where this sheer pressure was coming from, and she had half an idea someone wasn't, at all, happy with this specific arrangement. The chuunin-sensei appeared to stall for a moment, his eyes looking around the classroom before settling back on the paper, the pressure dropping significantly in less than a blink.

She knew however that Sakura wasn't, at all, happy with the arrangement.

"Team eight, under the command of Yuhi Kurenai, will be composed of Hinata Hyuga, Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi." There was a strange cough, coming from the back seats, as a hand lifted itself up in the air.

"Yes Shikamaru-kun?"

The voice that came bore all the underlying laziness of the tone that was probably possible to show out.

"Are the specifics of why a team is built secret information?"

"I'm afraid they are." Iruka replied a bit uneasily, his eyes moving sideways.

"Then I have no questions." The boy replied quietly, and so the Chuunin-sensei kept on giving the list. She couldn't help but start asking herself the very same question: who made the teams anyway? The Hokage? Wait a moment…wasn't the Hokage's surname…Yashagoro? She paled, visibly starting to shiver. Anko Yashagoro could be the daughter of the Hokage, or even the granddaughter for all that she knew, but still…that meant she was a high level target for enemy shinobi, which in turn meant that she was a really strong Kunoichi. That meant…that if she played her cards right, she might just as well become a strong enough Kunoichi to fight off Sakura…and survive!

"Team nine, under the command of…" Iruka stopped for a second, his eyes bugging out before slowly steadying himself, "Ibiki Morino, will be composed of Taifuu Shimura, Shino Aburame and Ino Yamanaka." The pressure returned double in its intensity, but this time it wasn't directed at her. No, she could feel the twin jaded eyes direct themselves at someone else entirely, and she saw the effects even though Ino didn't apparently realize who was looking at her with murder in mind.

The Yamanaka girl was strangely sweating, and slightly twitchy, but she didn't realize what the reason was. Her hands began to flex with nervousness as Iruka ended up the roll call, before exclaiming.

"Listen to me: from this day hence, you are all shinobi of the leaf." He began, "From this day, you are adults. From this day, you will be tasked with responsibilities. From this day, you are no longer kids, or children…but fellow comrades. Let the will of fire burn brightly in you…"

She swore she had just heard a loud yelling 'Yosh' echo from outside the window, but that couldn't be possible.

"But remember, Konoha wasn't built by a single leaf. Konoha is the village hidden by leafs, by all of us: help each other, become true comrades, and nothing will stand on your way towards your objectives." The speech was probably the type that was rehearsed every year with the graduating class: it smelled of naivety and kindness…things that weren't needed in their world.

There was a chorus of Hai's and cheers, except for the murderous stare that was still on Ino, nothing appeared out of the ordinary as the Jounin-sensei slowly but surely began to enter the classroom. She watched as a purple haired woman, clad in what could be described as an obscene trench coat and a fishnet shirt, with a terribly short skirt yelled out loud with a cheerful tone.

"My little toys of team Six! I'm Mita…ehm, Yashagoro Anko! Move your skinny asses over and follow me!" As the Jounin-sensei said that, she stood up quickly, as too did a seemingly normal black haired boy with black eyes and a pale complexion.

A girl with hazel hair and one of those old purple clothes for archaic shinobis quickly scampered to her feet behind him, and soon they left the premises of the classroom.

The fact that she distinctively heard one of the other Jounin-sensei, a guy with silver hair, drawl out a 'Don't kill them' in a not-so whispered tone didn't make her feel any better.

It was unsettling then when the woman brought the three of them to a Dango stall, sitting down with a cheerful exclamation.

"Alright! Sit down, order some dango and let's have a nice talk you brats!"

She looked to her right and to her left, and it was then that she discovered that indeed, the other two were waiting for her to sit down first. Kind of wanting to see if she actually trusted the woman not to kill them…it was just a Dango Stall for heaven's sakes!

She sat down without saying a word, and so too did her 'teammates'. Why they had decided to have her as a leader was something she couldn't understand, but still…

The woman called Anko smiled with a predator-like smirk filled with blood lust…at least she hoped it was blood lust, before sweetly and coyly saying.

"Well then…tell me your likes, dislikes and things like that…"

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

Their instructor, Ibiki Morino, was a tall and stern man that gave 'serious' and 'gruff' an all new definition in the vocabulary. He knew the man was some sort of big shot in the interrogation and torture department. He knew because said man had been called, the day he had returned to Konoha, to investigate him. The scarf-head man with the black trench coat and the underneath grey vest had asked all the questions he could have had, and he had answered all that he could. Considering he was in a hospital bed, being tended to, didn't mean any less. The man was first and foremost an information expert, a ruthless torturer, and only finally a Jounin. He had been placed as the team leader for a reason, and the fact that the Yamanaka was present too didn't mean a thing. This wasn't a normal team.

The fact they were currently sitting on uncomfortable looking chairs within the inner workings of the torture and interrogation department, their wrists locked down by strong metallic bonds and facing the diabolical grin of said man meant nothing once more. This was a test probably, and if it was, then somebody should have warned them in advance...but life is never fair after all.

The spiky haired boy that was Aburame Shino wasn't even flinching: albeit considering the never-ending crawling sensation of bugs within one's own body he was probably thinking this was just 'mildly' uncomfortable. He on the other hand was looking with vivid interest at their female teammate…who was the picture of wracking nervousness.

"We're going to die." She kept on whispering and whispering with sweat falling from every single one of her pores.

He rolled his eyes, how could she be scared of this? There wasn't even a torture device outside. None of them were actually criminals, or convicted of having done something illegal. There was nothing to fear from the man, except his grin.

That grin had to be faked and laced with a mild Genjutsu: there was no way they could make one so scary. He snapped his eyes closed, slowly draining his Chakra away from his head, before releasing it once more. As his eyes opened slowly, he realized he was face to face once more with the grinning white teeth of his maybe Jounin-sensei, who was now at least appearing visibly amused.

"This is not a Genjutsu, brats." He began in a low and coarse voice, before turning around and grabbing something from within a cabinet of the green walled room they were in.

"I suppose you're asking yourself 'Is this the Jounin test?' or maybe something along the lines of 'You can't do this to us!' well…the answers are 'It isn't' and 'I can'." Ibiki's voice seemed positively thrilled as he turned around wielding what seemed to be a tattoo-like needle.

"First off, as I am the head of the Torture and Interrogation department, T&I for short, half the stuff I know are highly classified, and the other halves are off-limits to who doesn't belong to the department. This is a good thing, because it means that there is no need for a Jounin test: you were selected specifically because you'd be good at the job."

The needle began to spin and click furiously, and he couldn't help but sweat a little. He could only hope the man wouldn't imprint a tattoo on his the left arm. There was a reason for it, if only he could remember what it was though.

"Now then…where do you want the tattoo?" The man queried with a predator-like smile, "If you're good enough, I might even try and make it painless."

"I would inquire if the tattoo has some sort of seal-like properties, and if such what the extents of the seals are." Shino clipped in quickly, the first words he muttered were precisely those: efficient and to the point.

"It's needed to recognize you as members in training of the Torture and Interrogation department, thus having the seals in place around the area not send off alarms of sorts for intruders. It will also enable me to effectively start teaching you the skills you need, because unless you're a member much of what I know is classified and the very same seal prevents to speak of things classified unless there's another member." At least he was being eager in replying.

"Right shoulder." He immediately muttered. "Pretty please make it painless? Thy art thou grievous beseech me to cast thou trust and bemusement."

"What the hell was that?" Ino's remark was snarky at best, "What are you, a poet boy? How can you two be so calm! He's going to brand us like cattle!"

"Yamanaka-san, it is logical to assume that the moment we put on our forehead protector we would be asked to do things for the village. The village assumes that under the guide of Morino-san we will grow and flourish, thus it is logical to consider this nothing more than an initiation and since there appears to be no significant harmful condition or negative side-effects, I will comply with the proposition explicated by Shimura-san."

"Oh Kami no." The girl whined, "I ended up with two tongue-nerds."

"I take affront of that!" Taifuu exclaimed, "It's not every word of mine that showcases the irregular inflexion of the terms to a more archaic and harmonic wording."

"This is torture!" Ino yelled, "Morino-sensei! Get them to shut up please!"

"Sensei? So you will be taking the tattoo too young girl?" The man asked with a nice grin, "I assume you are all going to hate this moment, but worry not: they say I'm good at my job for a reason."

In truth, a few seconds later Ibiki dropped the needle, starting to go through a set of hand signs and gestures that seemingly flowed one into the other, until he finally united both of his index fingers and touched the right shoulders of all three of them.

The burning sensation that came a little bit later wasn't even enough to make him grit his teeth: it just stung. Ino Yamanaka had a different opinion, as she complained loudly about it, while Shino simply raised an eyebrow. That was the most expressiveness he had managed to see from the boy till that moment...he was starting to like him.

"Well, now we can begin introducing ourselves." Ibiki smiled, before removing the clasps from their wrists and letting them sit more comfortably now. "I am Ibiki Morino, head of the Torture and Interrogation department. I hate traitors, betrayers and backstabbers. I like to hear the truth or get it out from the whimpering messes that are the people I hate once I'm done working with them. My favorite food is Enokitake and any type of meat. My greatest wish is to fight and bring to justice all betrayers and liars."

As he said that, his eyes sharpened themselves on him for a second. It was like he was kind of accusing him to be a liar, but he wasn't lying at all! He had yet to lie…and those eyes instead appeared to be giving him the fault. At fault until proven innocent, it appeared, was going to be how this Jounin-sensei worked.

"Your turn." The man basically ordered, locking eyes with him.

"My name is Taifuu Shimura, Genin of Konohagakure no Sato. I like to take things seriously and to spend time at the cemetery talking to those I couldn't protect." He didn't miss the slightly perplexed face of Ino at that, stupid girl living a fantasy world. "I dislike noises, bright colors, people claiming stupid things out loud and idiocy." At that there was a light smirk of amusement coming from Ibiki. Probably because Ino had turned a sour face and a murderous gaze at him? Shino remained instead quiet, waiting for him to finish.

"I have no dream of my own, but I promised I would carry on that of those I failed to protect," he murmured, "I eat anything that is comestible, and my greatest wish is to make amend for my past mistakes."

"Very well." Ibiki curtly said, before looking at Shino who swiftly proceeded to speak.

"My name is Shino Aburame, I am a Genin as of now it appears, I enjoy Entomology and collecting insects, I like wild grass salad and winter melon, while I dislike anything with a strong odor. My wish is to constantly prove myself by fighting stronger opponents. I hope this team will proficiently and efficiently reach the height of its potential."

"I hope that too kid." Ibiki replied with a smirk, before finally turning his eyes to Ino, "Your turn Goldylocks." If looks could kill, Ino's narrowed eyes would have reduced to smithereens the head of the torture and interrogation department in a second.

"My name is Ino Yamanaka: I'm a Genin and the one with the best grades in my class too! I like shopping and the way flowers work to give out meanings. I like eating cherry tomatoes," more like the only thing she ate if her waist was of any indication, "And I dislike putting up weight." There was some sort of feeble snort coming from his throat that he tried, hard, to suppress. It didn't escape Ibiki's ears, although the man did not comment on it…but the gaze flickered for a second to him before returning on the girl.

"My wish is to become the most beautiful and powerful kunoichi there is!"

"Oh Kami kill me now." He muttered, not being able to withstand this any longer. Luckily his mutter came at the same time as Ino's exclamation, so it went probably unheard.

"I see…" Ibiki drawled, before snapping his right finger while standing up, "On your feet team! We're going outside." That said, he finally opened the door of the cell they had been brought into blindfolded, and out they walked…to stare at a perfectly normal and average hallway. A hallway that Taifuu knew was kind of familiar.

"Oh hell no." He muttered. "You're telling me that the…the department is hidden…"

"Indeed." Ibiki remarked, "We are five floors beneath the common lounge of the orphan apartments." With a sadistic grin he began walking towards the elevator at the end of the hallway, pressing the button to start rising up. "Who would think to look for us here after all?"

"Interesting." Shino remarked. "Is it safe to assume we cannot divulge the information outside?"

"More like you can't." Ibiki commented, "Mind you: you can try…but you'll start feeling a sharp pain on your shoulder immediately…keep it up and the seal might just…explode, so to say."

"Would circumstance behavior affect it too?" Shino piped in, earning a snort from Ino.

"What are you speaking about?"

"He is asking if merely pointing the finger and saying 'five fleet beneath' counts or not." He commented, for once finding that if he had to actually work with someone, Shino was actually not a bad alternative. Not that he'd trust the boy with his back unless he had proven so, of course.

"The intention is what the seals looks for." Ibiki said without missing a second, "As long as you intend to say something you shouldn't, it will start burning up."

"Well…so we have to find a way to make it non-intentional?" He asked making his eyes as wide as possible and as childish as possible, "Maybe sleep-talking? Can someone be trained into sleep-talking?"

As the doors of the elevator pinged to an open, they exited through the lounge towards the exit of the apartment complex, only for him to stop and stare at the climbing upstairs form of Katsu, who seemed to be apparently filled with discomfort.

At first, he raised his hand to try and say something to her, but the words died in his mouth as Ino saw the very same figure of the girl in question.

"Katsu-chan!" She chirped, waving at _his_ old friend, "How's your sensei!?" The screech practically echoed through the entire hall, making him wince and stare with a sour look at the blond haired girl. He had said that he hated loud noises, right?

He turned to look at Shino, who was quietly standing behind a slightly irate Ibiki. He did his best understanding of the situation and swiftly kept on walking until he was right next to the Aburame. The Sensei had given an order, and Ino had of course stopped to chat. Luckily for her Katsu didn't hear the screech or if she did she ignored it, because she quickly reached upstairs and disappeared from view.

"Oh well. I'll talk to the girl later on." Ino cheerfully grinned as she turned and came face to face with Ibiki's most terrifying angered face.

"I said to follow girl!" The man snarled, the eyes of the common room looking straight at the scene, forcing the girl to whimper lightly. "When your instructor tells you to follow, you follow! You don't stop and turn around to wave hello to someone. Did I make myself clear!?"

"But she was…"

If there was one thing he knew, it was to never retort back. _I do not care for your opinion. __**You are weaker than me, thus your words do not matter.**_

He blinked for a second: those voices…it kind of felt like someone had given a jab to one of his memories, before he shook his head slowly, returning to gaze at the public execution of the Yamanaka.

"Did I say you could speak back girl?" The man sneered in disgust, "You will follow my orders to the letter, in silence, and you will comply or I will make sure to get you removed from the program altogether!" As he said that, a look of betrayal and shock passed over the blond haired girl, who paled and gulped down nervously.

"Did I make myself clear?"

"Y-Yes."

"Yes what!?"

"Yes sir." She whispered, biting her lower lip in fright and looking down at the floor.

"Then get moving and follow!" with that, he turned around quickly, beginning to move out of the common room, and along the street.

Needless to say, he and Shino followed as fast as they could, with Ino catching up to them slowly.

Maybe…maybe nothing was lost after all: this seemed like quite a good team to begin with.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

She was gasping for breath by the time she reached her room. Her knees were buckling under her very own weight, and she felt the need to fall down and lay face down on her bed. She just wanted to sleep away all her worries and fatigue. At least, she thought it was fatigue. She doubled over after a few moments, holding her hands against her stomach while at the same time groaning out in pain. Had she been poisoned? Or was she allergic to dangos?

She didn't know what it was, but she sure as hell didn't want it any longer in her stomach. She crawled down from her bed, and towards the door, but stopped short from reaching it as someone opened it.

A gleam of those jade eyes was all that it took for her to understand: she had indeed been poisoned…by her.

At least, she thought that was the case, until she felt herself being hoisted upwards, and being pushed towards the bathroom by the girl.

"No dying on me. You can die for me. You have to die for me, but not now. No. Too soon." Sakura's murmurs were frantic, as she literally pulled her face against the bathroom's toilet, flinging two of her fingers deep within her mouth to make her retch.

"You were poisoned: probably a low acting type of venom." She hissed, "Why they would do this, I don't know."

"Please…" _no more. Please, stop this_.

"Oh no. Keep this up." The pink haired girl snarled, her vicious grip not letting go of her, "You will be ready for tomorrow's test with your sensei, and you will pass it. Do you hear me?" The girl murmured, "If you won't…I might just have to kill you myself for wasting space."

"Wh…Why?" She was in tears as the words escaped her lips slowly, the sour taste of puke lingering in her mouth.

"Why? Because I say so. You are worth nothing, do you hear me? You are _my_ tool, _my_ instrument." A quiet hiss soon reached her ears a second later, "You are _mine_."

And then the pressure relented, and she was left there alone, to cry her tears and stifle her sobs. Why was this happening? Why to her, of all people? Why couldn't she just…just leave?

Maybe she could. She was just a Genin: they wouldn't even look for her so actively...but she had to escape somehow, and the only way out of the gates for her now would be on a mission…and how could she get one, if she didn't pass?

In any case, she had to pass the Jounin-sensei's test the next day. Who could have poisoned her though? She had been careful all around it…Her sensei? Maybe she had administered a test…

Slowly she managed to stand back up and flush the toilet, before wobbling towards the sink and wash her mouth of the bitter taste of vomit. Few minutes later, and she was once more in her room, falling asleep as fast as she could.

Maybe she should have eaten something?

Maybe she should have, if she wasn't actually thinking that yet more white rice was going to be the death of her. Even the poisoned Dangos had some kind of goodness in them.

She slept, without even remembering when precisely she had fallen asleep, and in her sleep she recalled her two teammates. A sickly Genjutsu user and a monotone boy who spoke like a machine were her two 'friends' and 'teammates' with whom she would have to work with.

When her eyes flicked open, two hazel colored eyes looked at her with faint amusement, a tight grin etched on her face. Her Jounin-sensei was positively scary in the dim light of the dying sun.

"Well…you're still alive." She pointed out with a sarcastic undertone, "Good."

"Wh…why?"

"Test. You see, I don't usually take apprentices, but this year I was kind of bored with nothing to do. Father's being a prick and a worrywart, so I told myself: let's try and be a teacher for once, help someone else become something more than a no-name orphan."

"You…You bitch!" She yelled, fury overtaking her fatigue just that long for her hands to rise and try and choke the living hell out of the woman, only for them to fall down weighting like lead a few seconds later.

"Oh! Fighting spirit! Good!" Anko was positively cheerful, or so she seemed to appear, that sarcastic grin etched on her face like it had been done with a permanent marker. "Anyway…" she sing-sung, "You just won yourself an apprenticeship with me…you can start by calling be Supremely Beautiful and Sexy Anko Sensei!"

Then she was grabbed quickly by the purple haired kunoichi, who, without batting an eyelid, dropped her down on the floor a few seconds later.

"Scramble to your feet girl! Come on! Show me some more of that fighting spirit!"

She growled in frustration, as she tried to move her fingers and make pressure against the wooden bark of the floor: she didn't have a carpet after all. Slowly, her arms pushed, but just as she was reaching the level where she could put her knees down for a more firm rise…she was suddenly kicked down once more.

She choked on her breath, exhaling painfully as she tried to reach for some air. She tried to claw at the other leg of her sensei, but the pressure just increase.

"When I give you an order, girl…I expect you to reply with a Yes Supremely Beautiful and Sexy Anko-sensei...understood?" The question wasn't even said with the playful mirth of the past words: it held a slight amount of bloodlust that she couldn't believe was anything less but the sheer desire of making her suffer.

She pitifully whined, at least in her opinion, as she tried to mutter those words.

"Y…Yes…" It wasn't embarrassment, at least she thought it wasn't, but her pride didn't want to give to…to this woman any quarter. "S…Supreme…Bitch!"

The second that word came out, a kick landed straight on her face, the sharp crack noise that echoed meant only one thing, if considered together with the incredible pain she was feeling.

"I just broke your nose with a sharp kick to the face. Next thing I do after rearranging your face is breaking your teeth…want me to try and make you prettier?"

Tears streaked down her cheeks, mixed with the blood that was positively pooling down her face and into her lips and throat. Every breath was hurting her, but she had no choice did she?

"No…please…no." The pressure on her back lowered, making her gasp in relief, until a sharp kick reached her sides forcing her to literally be flung in the air before landing on her back groaning from the pain.

Now she knew what it meant to be kicked on the side.

"Last chance: I understand, Supremely Beautiful and Sexy Anko-sensei…you are clearly the best teacher ever."

It took her few minutes, to actually murmur each and every single word of that sentence, holding her arms closer like she was cradling herself in the meantime. By the time the last word came out, she slumped down, her entire frame shivering from the effort.

"Good!" The woman said cheerfully, "Now then…I want you to be ready, for tomorrow at ten in the morning, near training ground forty-four! Bring nothing but a kunai and don't worry, I'll teach you everything that you will need to know to make it to Jounin like a breeze!" With those cheerful words, the woman left her alone in the room.

She began to sob, uncontrollably, closing herself into a fetal position as her mind tried to find ways to make this situation seem less bad than it was.

She had a psychopathic girl who was stronger than her and wanted her dead. There was a psychopathic teacher who was stronger than her and would kill her while training her. She was without friends, allies, or any other things like that.

Why did she have to fight through this?

Was there any reason, any bare scrape of a reason why she had to do this?

The door opened slowly, maybe a few minutes or hours later, and she could see between tears a blurry figure move closer to her and gently push her up.

"Who did this?" The voice hissed in a voice that held all the possible anger in the world. It was so…so different she didn't even recognize it.

"No…No-one." She whimpered back, "Nothing…I fell…"

"Who. Did. This?" The voice insisted. It was a male's voice, but she couldn't pinpoint it.

"You will not tell? Then I will find out on my one." With those words, she was gently lowered on her bed, before the blur turned around and left.

"I will warn Taifuu." The boy added, and with those words, now devoid of emotion, she realized just who had found her there: Chikao.

"No!" She screeched, but the boy was already gone. She was going to die if she stayed there! Chikao…he shouldn't tell. If he did, then she was going to die, everything was going to be hushed down and…no, she couldn't do it…she had to leave.

The disappearance of adrenaline from her system, however, brought her eyes to close and finally give in to rest. She had to set the clock…she had to wake up at ten…she had to go to the training.

That day passed like a blur, half awake and half asleep, but when her eyes fluttered open once more, her nose had been set by someone. There also were no green jaded eyes greeting her that morning, and the clock rang at eight o'clock, but had she set it?

She didn't recall setting it.

Next to her, face down on the side of her bed, Taifuu Shimura was peacefully sleeping while holding in his right hand a pair of tweezers and some medical utilities. Had he nursed her? Even after having flipped him off, after having distanced herself from him? Why did he insist on coming back to her every time?

It was then that, of course, the door had to silently creak open once more.

In the agonizingly bright light of the early morning, those haunting jade eyes looked straight at her, and then down below at Taifuu's hair. It was then that a stupid idea, a really stupid idea, reached the back of her mind.

Quietly, her right hand moved slowly, while her gaze never left those twin orbs of green that fixed her, towards Taifuu's hair.

Ever so slowly the hand reached his hair, and gently began to caress it, eliciting a light mumbling and a distinctive purr of pleasure from the boy. The gaze that she cast back was one filled with determination and anger. If she was going to die anyway because of the psycho-sensei…then she was going to die with at least a friend at her side.

The dark murderous gaze that the pink haired girl sent her back was just then starting to make her change her decision…but then Taifuu woke up, groaning slightly at the minute gesture of her ruffling his hair gently. As she broke eye contact she heard her door creak to a close, but not before a meaningful last glance towards her _situation_ made her shiver.

Oh Kami…just what had she done? Why had she decided to start thinking like that?

She was going to die anyway…right? Better to die happy then.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

He felt soft fingers on his head as he stirred from his sleep. Chikao had waited for him after his 'first day' of Jounin-sensei training, which had consisted in nothing more than testing their prowess with jutsus, physical activities and quick thinking tactics. Nothing out of the extraordinary, just to know what strong points one had and what he had to work on. He had thought he'd get to shower and go to sleep, then complete the transfer to his father's house the next day, and yet here he was.

He shouldn't have been there actually, not after the way Katsu had treated him at his return…yet here he was, because Chikao had asked him and he had accepted. Somehow he knew something was wrong with his friend, but he had always been so busy that he hadn't had the time to check on her any better than a passing glance or inquiry.

He knew he could mop the floor with any cadet that left the academy, and he knew full well he could probably devastate a Chuunin…the problem was that he didn't know _why_. He had this…this feeling, this sixth sense that moved his actions. He didn't think he knew how to set a broken nose, and then he just did that on reflex, like it was a common thing, something he did routinely.

He wouldn't stall any longer. He would get his answers that day, without delays.

"What happened?" He asked, cautiously stirring to feel if all of his muscles were sore from the uncomfortable position he had been in for most of the day.

The wincing of Katsu made him curious, especially when the girl didn't reply immediately, instead preferring to avert her gaze to the window. He narrowed his eyes when the girl's complexion paled for a moment, before they moved to look at her hands that appeared to have clenched. _Signs of emotions should be adequately killed._

He jerked his head to the side violently, trying to catch a glimpse of what Katsu herself had been seeing, but found nothing and thus his head drifted to another thought: where had that sentence come from?

"Noth…" Katsu caught the words in her mouth, before murmuring, "Promise me…you'll believe my words?"

It was strange, but he stared at her perplexed, not actually expecting that question. She was asking him if he'd believe her words? Of course he would. _Trust is something fickle and unneeded. Rulers with power do not need it._

That voice again…it kept popping inside his head, but usually it had intervals. Two in such a short time had never happened before, there had to be a reason for it.

"I promise." He whispered back. Maybe he'd get some sort of truth from Katsu. Maybe not all of it, but a good part would be more than enough to stick together the rest.

"I…I'm being…" Then the window crashed, as a volley of kunais soared through the air straight at the bed, straight at Katsu. He didn't think, but maybe in retrospect he should have: in the blink of a second he had grasped the girl by her arm and flung her straight out against the wooden door, breaking the door to splinters as he dashed out of the apartment behind her.

That had to hurt of course, but it was the quickest way to leave that room, especially if the attacker was outside. He quickly got on his knees near Katsu, who appeared to be gasping for breath and moaning from the pain. In retrospect, sending girls flying through doors wasn't a good way of keeping up a friendship.

"Targeted." Katsu whimpered, clenching her teeth as she spoke, "Uzumaki…Sakura. She's…mad, she..."

"Alright, calm down." He murmured cradling his friend's body, not daring to move her in case she actually had something broken. "I'm going to check up on you alright?" He quietly added, before slowly pushing some of his chakra through the girl's body.

The basic of a chakra diagnostic jutsu wasn't, as one might expect, the mere plopping of chakra through a body and expecting some sort of shiny letter to appear somewhere in the medic-nin's brain, like a sort of text bubble with the diagnose ready. The basic of the diagnostic jutsu was that a body naturally repels chakra that does not belong to that body, except in the areas where there isn't chakra to begin with. Considering that chakra is used subconsciously by the body to mend its wounds, the chakra diagnostic jutsu is a mere 'sonar' that gives off an echo of the non-damaged areas.

The principle behind the usage of some sort of 'healing' jutsu however was far more complex.

_Listen: you have chakra alright? Loads of it. Then learn how to use it! You can't have a cannonball as silent as an arrow, but if you did have a cannonball arrow, wouldn't that be cool?_

Climbing a metal wall with only chakra at his feet came as a flash in the back of his mind. When had he done that? How had he done that to begin with?

He had been…wandering, escaping. Why did he know of Iwa's plains? He had been imprisoned, hadn't he?

The soft groan that once more came to Katsu's lips forced his concentration back at work, as his own chakra retreated from her body.

"You've got nothing broken in your spine…I'm moving you to the hospital." He added softly. "Nice first day of Genin-hood." He whispered as his arms surrounded Katsu, lifting her up before moving out, towards the hospital.

Maybe he'd unpack his stuff back to his home later on…and if someone was targeting Katsu, then why was nothing being done about it? Maybe…maybe the girl had decided not to talk about it? Why though? He needed the complete picture, and to have it, he needed to have Katsu alive and well.

"_Thank you." Raven haired._

"_Why?" Black eyes._

Had he already carried someone like that before? If he had done that, then why couldn't he _remember_?The hospital's doors came into view a few seconds later, and as he literally slammed into them his thoughts entered a state of pure chaos he couldn't come to terms with: flashes came and left, his head felt like a hammer was pounding on it repeatedly, and all in all he felt as nauseous as if he were the one sick, not Katsu.

The medics were hovering on him in a second, his back appeared to have been hit by a kunai while performing the flinging of Katsu out of harm's way, and he hadn't even noticed. A short brown haired woman came quickly, snapping orders to the right and to the left, calling for a certain 'Tsunade', but he didn't leave. He stood there numbly, his eyes not moving from Katsu's body as finally something different from fear and apprehension settled in.

Somebody had tried to kill one of his friends.

Again, he had barely been able to save them.

"_There will always be someone stronger in the world…good for us that we're shinobi brat! Cunningness, chance, backstabbing…those do not require strength…they require a quick mind and nimble thinking."_

An old man, that was who had spoken to him. He vaguely remembered a large nose…it was a predominant feature after all. He blinked as he could hear the voice of the female doctor speak while hovering over him.

"He appears to be in shock Tsunade-sama, and the girl he brought in had various signs of poisoning and bruises…" A twin pony-tailed blond woman with amber eyes was looking at his side with a determined gaze. At least, he hoped it was determined because the nimble fingers worked themselves around his wound with little to no hesitation. The kunai plopped out in a second, pain not even filtering within his brain as the woman had probably given him some form of painkiller.

He wasn't watching the wound however, but he was instead looking at the hallway where they had been in the process of pulling Katsu through, the interest in his eyes apparently had been vivid enough for the brown haired assistant to notice it, because she immediately tried to soothe him, like he was some sort of worried child, that everything was fine now.

"I'm going." He muttered, decision taken to follow Katsu to her room or die trying. His second step took him down, his face landing neatly with the ground, as a groan and a fit of pain came to him from the back of his neck.

"What…What was that for!?" He yelled, rolling on his back to try and get back up.

"Im…Impossible." The blond woman murmured, her eyes suddenly narrowing. "You have a neck protection around your pressure points, right?"

His eyes narrowed back in reply.

"Good thing I do then." His right hand moved to his kunai, "Why were you trying to knock me out?"

"That's not the point." She hissed, "I looked for obtrusions in your body, and the chakra passed through you without a hitch: had that been a normal metallic neck protection, or even a wooden one, I would have felt it."

"Trade secret." His hand slowly came to grip the handle of his kunai. The rest of the lounge was watching the scene unfold without moving, conscious probably that he was clearly the one overstepping his strengths. He really doubted he'd survive a Sannin of all things, but he'd be damned if he wouldn't get to the end of this with Katsu still alive!

"Your friend got attacked, and you were losing it: knocking you out was a good solution that would have left me to work more at ease."

"I didn't snap from imprisonment or interrogation: this is nothing." His shoulders squared themselves upwards, as he tried to appear confident and maybe –no, definitively- arrogant. He didn't expect the senbons to the side of the shoulder though. He saw them coming from the assistant in a moment, but he couldn't move and dodge them fast enough: with a set of convincing chinks, he felt his entire body fall down on the ground, lights going out as darkness claimed him. The voices deadened down to a mere buzz, before silence descended on him.

When he came back to his senses, it was in a hospital room. In the bed next to him, Katsu appeared to be sleeping peacefully, while standing guard on the seat between the two beds was a concentrated Chikao, who immediately snapped his head to his side once he realized he was awake.

"Who?" The boy asked without as much as using an inflexion in his tone.

"Nice to see you…"

"Who?" The boy queried once more, insisting.

"I don't know." He replied truthfully. His head was still half-split from the previous hours, and he felt strangely euphoric, like he had just gone through some sort of happiness drug dosage.

"It's not the first time Katsu was attacked." Chikao pointed out, "It's reiterated." The boy's hand moved to point at the door outside. "I was meant to call a nurse when one of you woke up. Before that…what do I need to know?"

"There's nothing." He whispered, "I…I think Katsu was going to tell me, but she couldn't manage…she said something about Sakura, I think…the pink haired girl of Class-A."

"I understand." Chikao nodded, "I'll ask around if I'll get the chance."

"How's your team?" He asked, trying to change argument and avoid an embarrassing silence.

"Normal." The boy's eyes moved back to look at the sleeping form of Katsu, "Genin Division: Team fifty-nine. I'm leaving tomorrow for long-term assignment to the Land of Fire and Land of Lightning border."

"_And then those fucking frigging pricks decided we were a menace. WE! Lost good friends that day, shit like you wouldn't imagine. So yeah, fucking hate that village..."_

He winced slowly, before humming out a tune.

"Be careful."

"I am." Another small nod from the boy, and then he stood up, "I'll warn the nurse."

"Thank you."

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

"_**Raiu-chan! Raiu-chan!"**_

"_**Huh?"**_

"_**I got sur…surname!"**_

"_**Yeah! Cool!"**_

"_**Raiu-chan? Where is…" Green eyes, pink hair… How can hair be naturally pink? **_

"_**There!" The corner, the girl is always crying isn't she?**_

"_**Let's play!" Always the kind hearted offering a hand…she likes that in him.**_

"_**Momma…Daddy…" She got in later. She remembers her parents, and that's bad: she's not thinking like her younger self who merely didn't understand the cry-baby girl, she's thinking like her adult self. Orphans who remember their parents wilt away in guilt even if they find a family…or in sorrow and hatred if they don't, blaming the cause.**_

"_**Come on! Let's play!" She insisted on playing. **_

"_**Katsu…mi." Katsumi? Was that her complete name? Of course it was. She had gone with Katsu, right? Why had she gone with Katsu? Because it was shorter, and Raiu had troubles with her full name.**_

"_**We'll be your family now!" The boy says that, but why does he?**_

_**Doesn't he know that…**_

A small groan brought her back to the world of the living.

She was starting to get tired of being knocked off every half a day: she had signed in to do missions, not to spend most of her time knocked off or thrown against things. She winced as she remembered what had happened. Looking around, she found the telltale signs of where she had ended up in: a hospital room.

Next to her, Taifuu's body was suddenly relaxing, as his face showed up a bright smile that appeared to have come down from only heaven knew where.

"I knew you didn't hate me." The boy whispered, his cerulean blue eyes looking at her with a positive note of happiness.

"I…"

"I know. You're not staying in your apartment any longer." Taifuu began again, and as she looked at him shocked, the boy added swiftly, "You'll be coming home with me."

"What." She croaked out.

"I'll give you a copy of the keys: you passed your test and so did I, we're officially shinobi, so the stuff in my house can be read by both of us. We'll keep an eye out on each other and my father's house got some pretty awesome security around." The raven haired teen began to ramble, saying word after word that make her smile slowly at first, hesitantly, until in the end she's giggling at his antiques.

"Thy lady appears mirthful?" The question earned back only a louder giggle, before she finally calmed down enough to reply.

"Indeed, though hardship berates us at every turn, thy offer is most kind and I would be honored to accept."

"Good. We're fam…friends, we stick with each other." The boy blushed lightly, before she finally realized what he had been implying.

"You remembered?" She whispered barely holding her breath in.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." She was quick in her reply, "I'm…I'm going to need to pack my things. You think they'll let us go before tomorrow? My sensei's a sadist."

A snort followed by a mad chuckle escaped from the throat of a dreadful woman that made its way in the room.

"A sadist? Little sexy me?" Anko's turn was mock-hurt as her light hazel eyes flicked from one figure to the other, "So…somebody told me my only apprentice got hurt on the very first day…and that somebody told me that I should treat you better…now, I admit the poison _might_ have been a bit excessive…but it wasn't like you died from it!"

"Is she?" Taifuu's question hung in the air, as she quickly replied.

"She's my…Supremely Beautiful and Sexy Anko-sensei." The embarrassment that she felt drowning into was more than enough to make her shut her eyes close, as she could just imagine the look of surprise on Taifuu's face.

"A fast learner! I might just decide not to kill you for now, if you start telling me what happened…you're barely a squirt: who'd want you dead huh? A hail of kunais, all those falls down the stairs…tsk, tsk."

"You wouldn't believe me." She replied, "And there's nothing you can do."

"Try me." Anko shrugged, crossing her arms in front of her chest, "I know that whoever the fucker is I'll end up having to postpone our good training in the forest of Death for at least a day, and I'm getting _bored_."

"Sakura Uzumaki is madly in love with Taifuu, and thinks I want to steal him away: so she tried to get me to help her shag him," at that Taifuu's face that had distorted into utter shock turned slightly red in embarrassment, "and menaced to violently get her displeasure known if I spoke about it."

"Well…" Anko rolled her eyes, "Let's say I believe you…you sure it was the girl?"

"Huh?"

"I mean…there are illusions out there, now I don't know you, but are you sure it was her and not, let's say, an enemy Nin?"

"No! She…She had this entire pile of used stuff of Taifuu, and I saw her handwork in remodeling Taifuu's room! I mean, I don't know why she hates Taifuu's father, but I know it's her!" She knew this was a lost cause, but at least, if she died, they'd have to check on the girl, right?

"Fine then, I believe you." Anko replied.

"And let's not…huh?"

"I said: I believe you."

"Why?"

"Because…because I'm your supremely sexy and beautiful sensei, that's why! Sleep tight and get some rest: you're safe here…I'll go and have a look around." But as the Jounin turned to leave, she couldn't help but feel a slight bit of worry. Maybe it had been her imagination, but then why had the woman apparently…smiled, after giving her back at her?

_**A voyage, no matter how great, always starts small. No man may run before walking, and no warrior can fight untrained. Growth is the key to everything, even in one's skills.**_

**Author's notes**

**Another chapter rolls by.**

***swoosh***

**The teams assignments were changed, because of course I needed more pandemonium. Next chapter will have the missions! (and the training) **


	8. The Tranquillity of the Lambs

The Twisted Reality 8

_**A voyage, no matter how great, always starts small. No man may run before walking, and no warrior can fight untrained. Growth is the key to everything, even in one's skills.**_

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

His eyes met with the golden hued ones of the Hokage, the white complexion of the man being a neat contrast with the otherwise dark clothes he was wearing. Orochimaru of the Densetsu Sannin did not appear as a strong man. Indeed, he seemed a normal looking fifty years old, with streaks of white hair coming down together with those locks that remained brown. The man wasn't old, but at fifty years he clearly was no longer on top shape.

At least, that would have been indeed the normal thought of an enemy, and indeed they would be proven wrong by just staying in the same room as the man.

He felt the power hiding behind the façade of normality. He understood the underlying strength that poured through the body of the Yondaime Hokage, and better yet, he had known the man's feats during the war were not exaggerations. So it was with a kind of worried feeling that he waited for his instructor to undertake the first mission for his team.

"As per protocol," the Yondaime spoke smoothly, "You will be assigned a total of forty D-rank missions, before moving onwards to C-rank eligibility. You will be tested on the C-rank level before undertaking one, and then you will need promotion to Chuunin before becoming eligible to test for B and A ranks respectively. You team will remain together until the moment you are all made Jounins, but missions might require the particular talents of only one of you, or an addition to the team to be made. Finally, your Jounin-sensei is Morino Ibiki and as such you will come across highly classified information more than once during your training career: I advise strongly on not referring any type of information to any acquaintance, friend, or enemy. That is to say: keep your mouths shut and you might avoid making more enemies than normal."

Ino flinched, she was probably thinking something along the lines of the entire discussion being centered for her, and he couldn't help but blink his eyes for a moment.

He had thought there had been someone outside the window, just a second before…he had to have been mistaken probably.

"The forty D-ranks you will have to take are…" Orochimaru's sneer was clearly visible, something that normally a shinobi could hide pretty well, but maybe it was indeed in the Hokage's intention to make it clear how much he despised those missions, "Nothing more than chores."

For a moment nobody breathed in the office of the Yondaime, whose windows appeared to have been neatly closed by black drapes to avoid the light from filtering inside. The only source of illumination seemed to be a flickering flame in the corner of the room. In the shadows, the Anbus were probably hiding, ready to assist their Hokage should the need arise; not that they would actually be necessary though if somebody tried such a stupid thing as to attack the Hokage.

"I truly feel that doing such things is debasing for the profession of shinobi and kunoichi alike," Orochimaru kept on talking, "Why should a man trained to kill paint a house? Why should he pull out weeds? Then again, delivering reports throughout the land of Fire is a D-rank mission, and a pretty important one at that, but it is not what I want to tell you." The Snake Sannin slowly lowered his gaze to his desk, before pointing to a set of documents stacked in a corner of the wooden surface.

"These here are a pile of D-ranks. These are _your_ pile of D-ranks. They have been preemptively taken, assigned and graded. None of these missions would take more than an hour a day to complete, and that is why I am expecting you to complete eight missions a day, for the following five days…I do not expect you to need being cuddled." The man hissed, "If you can't walk a dog in a park, then I suggest you renounce being a shinobi to begin with. Now, you have until the end of the week to complete your stack of missions. You will find that some papers have a red border, meaning those have a fixed date and time to work in, while others do have a yellow one, meaning they must be done during an allotted period of time on specific days…finally the green one are those to be done at leisure…"

He didn't want to ask why the Yondaime was telling this to them, but then again it was just like if the man could read in his mind, because the next second a small smirk appeared on the lineaments of the Sannin, who spoke once more.

"Indeed, I am not merely speaking to you to pass my time that is precious as it is: from the moment your stack is done, and you pass your initial testing for C-ranks at the end of them, you will no longer direct yourself here for missions, but instead head downstairs of the Hokage Tower, at the first floor. Mind you…" this time an underlying threating tone found its way from the Yondaime's throat to the room, "Do not have me look at you again for anything less than an A-rank or S-rank mission, which I _personally_ assign…are we understood?"

"Yes Hokage-sama," Ibiki spoke first, soon chorused by him and the other two of his teammates. He kept quiet as Ibiki moved to grab the stack, bowing one time to the Hokage before turning to leave. He bowed too, together with a stiff bow from Shino and a slightly more gracious one from Ino. As they turned to leave however, the voice of the Hokage cut in on their retreat.

"Genin Shimura, stay for a moment." He stopped, turning around and standing to attention with his eyes moving worriedly from Ibiki to the Hokage and vice-versa.

Ibiki merely snorted, before muttering.

"We'll be waiting outside, kid."

With the team gone, he waited there for the Yondaime's next words, half-expecting another interrogation on the matter of where he had ended up being during his missing time.

"I have received a report concerning the wounds you have suffered in protecting one of your comrades…even before the official start of her career." The Sannin spoke quietly, "It is apparent you have healed well enough to be fit for service, however seeing how this fact primarily concerns you and your friend, and until a case can be mounted, I would suggest steering clear from the Uzumaki compound. As you will realize no mission assigned to your team even goes close to it. I must insist on not taking any, at all, contact with any Uzumaki clansmen of sorts. Understood?"

"Yes Hokage-sama." He replied stiffly, waiting to hear if the Hokage had anything else to add.

"Concerning your permission to re-enter your father's house, it has been granted. Civilians you designate are now authorized in the premises, but you are responsible for any documents or information you might find within it: if the village of Konohagakure no Sato or any of its inhabitants were to end up damaged by your lack of responsibility, you will be the one held accounted for."

He nodded once more, and this time the Yondaime nodded too, but towards a corner from which, silently, a masked man emerged without making a single noise. As he watched the man near him, he couldn't help but feel nervousness at the sight of the Anbu in question. Not even his breathing could be heard, and the porcelain mask that appeared harmless, just like the Yondaime after all, was in truth something that struck fear in the hearts of those who knew what an Anbu really was. A machine for war, a tool for death and an instrument of the Hokage…these were only a few of the appellatives given to the Anbus, who answered only to the Yondaime and worked in the most high risking positions.

The Anbu's right hand held a small packet, with his name and ninja number on it, followed by what appeared to be an enclosed letter.

"In the package you will find the various keys of the house, the letter merely list what key does what and where, and how the Fuinjutsu seals are placed in the house: while normally every possessor of a building must give out the full list of defenses installed within the compound, it is a highly…practiced thing to _forget_ about one or two traps." The Snake Sannin's voice turned thoughtful, "Which is the reason that usually forces the Hokage to have people transfer until the apartment is once more cleared for use following the death of the owner."

He nodded curtly, murmuring in a clear voice.

"Thank you Hokage-sama."

"You are dismissed, Genin Shimura...stand tall in the shadows of the leaf, hold your roots firmly and let the will fire burn brightly in you."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" And with that final exclamation on his part, he left the office of the Yondaime. Coming out from the door, he blinked a bit, his eyes tearing up from the increased light that came from the ceiling. The secretary of the Hokage merely smiled at him, before pointing with the tip of her pen towards the exit.

"Your sensei is outside, hope everything went well with Orochimaru-sama." The secretary had flaming pink hair and her eyes appeared to be a light brown color. He vaguely recalled her as an acquaintance during one of the few times his father had held guests in his house, Tay- something being her name.

"Thank you." He replied calmly, before heading off alongside the corridor. He could swear he heard the girl giggle as he left, but it was probably nothing about him…he knew secretaries tended to have inside-jokes of strange nature, and send to each other post-its and messages to pass the boring times.

His father had told him once that he had condoned that type of activity because it helped lower the stress at the workplace, especially with documents marked triple S-Secret going around.

His eyes adjusted to the bright light of the outside just in time to see his sensei look at him with his usual gruff demeanor, his arms crossed and one of his brows raised in the pretty universal gesture of curiosity mixed with repressed frustration.

The man was probably mad at him for being so late.

"House keys." He murmured quickly, not wanting to make his sensei any angrier for his lateness.

"Alright." Ibiki replied after a brief glance at the package in his hands, before turning to move together with them, at the same time looking over the stack of papers the Hokage had assigned them.

"Today, you have to pull out weeds, do the grocery for a lovely lady called Mai and assist the Inuzuka compound with dog problems in the afternoon." Ibiki's face was positively murderous as he handed over the three assignments to Ino, who took them graciously. "The Hokage said to do eight a day: well…I am one for efficiency above anything else." That said, he took three others and handed them over to Shino.

"You have to babysit a rowdy kid, paint a fence and repair a roof."

Finally, the sensei turned to him, and grabbing three assignments he merely shoved them into his arms.

"You have to report to the weapon department and proceed with cleaning their warehouse, reach for the Central Intelligence Office and take the written down scrolls back to the Central Processing Office and finally, for the last assignment, head to the Retired Shinobi Association and help the residents with their problems."

Ino looked ready to say something, but a sharp glare from Ibiki closed her mouth quickly.

"Now move! You will report back to me at Two and a half sharp this afternoon for three more each. We have no choice concerning the fixed time ones and the day fixed ones, but for all the others? We're going to go through them as fast as possible!"

"Hai, sensei!" With the loud exclamation, the three dashed off.

He looked at the first one of his, the cleaning of the weapon department warehouse, and scoffed. Technically it would take only one hour for him to finish a mission, believing the Hokage's words. That would have left him, since it was early morning and all, a long enough time to transfer his things back to his old house. He had to get the guest room ready after all: Katsu would be coming with him, and that would be the end of the line. He had to keep far away from the Uzumaki though…at least until the Hokage looked into that and brought forth the solution to his friend's problem.

To think that Sakura didn't even seem like a psychotic girl: it's always the quiet ones that apparently brandish the biggest knives. He didn't want to think about being constantly followed, eyed or maybe even spied during the night by the girl in question. If somebody had asked him before, he'd say that being followed by a girl would be some sort of flattery to his beauty. Now, however, he understood just how creepy it could be: being spied upon without you knowing, being followed everywhere or maybe not, not actually knowing when and if the girl in question would be lurking in the shadows waiting for you and when it wouldn't…It was scary.

It was really scary.

_Training Ground 44 – Katsu Uzuki_

She was there, holding her kunai. The only weapon her sensei had told her to bring had been a kunai after all, yet as much as she looked around worriedly she couldn't sense her sensei anywhere outside of the gate. She couldn't go in without her, could she? Yet again, it wasn't like the Jounin had given her the number of the gate in question…and there were forty-four gates to look for. Of course, as she had begun walking around them, she had felt the dreadful sensation that she knew, deep down, at what gate her sensei was going to wait for her.

She was proven correct: Gate Four sported a purple haired woman dressed with a visibly wide trench-coat and a fishnet shirt beneath it, twirling a kunai in her right hand as to pass time. Of course the feral grin was still there, if a little bit abated by a bored look; which, of course, didn't bode well.

"There you are!" Anko exclaimed with a smirk, "My cute little apprentice ready to learn!"

She had barely reached her sensei that the purple haired woman's hand shot forward, striking her in the stomach before grabbing her arm through a successive motion and pinning her on the ground.

"Lesson number one! Never be taken off guard!" The woman chirped, before whispering, "And I want your reply to show me the proper respect, girl."

"Y-Yes Beautiful and…Supremely Sexy Anko-sensei?" No, it was…it was the wrong way. The woman merely grinned wider, before grabbing a hold of her and disarming her with relative ease.

"For having used the wrong appellative, which still flatters me by the way, you'll go inside without weapons!" And then the woman walked through the gate, ignoring the Chuunin guard stationed inside who said nothing.

"In the forest of death, there are a lot of snakes," Anko sing-sung, "A lot are poisonous and a lot are venomous, and a lot will kill you, and a lot of a lot of a lot will eat you." It was a merry song, at least to hear because she was not feeling merry at all, being held by the woman and being brought deeper into the forest.

"Now! I'm sure you'll be thinking: is this going to kill me? And the answer is, of course, yes!" The woman chirped, "I need an apprentice with guts! The other two? They were worthless failures who died because of the poisoning! I could go around a couple of laws and explain…but let's just stick to the usual: you fail with me? You die!"

And then she was thrown against a tree bark near a small meadow that held a river crossing through it. The grass was a bright green color, and the tall trees surrounding them appeared menacingly frightening with their twisted branches and dark green leaves. The river by itself was nothing more than a stream, which seemed to be going towards Ovest.

"This here is a nice spot as any to drop you off." Anko shrugged, before getting into a loose stance with her right hand in front of her and her left dangling to her side. "Now come at me!"

She stood up slowly, gasping for air and wincing because of the pain flaring in her stomach. Barely able to breathe, she simply charged at the woman with her right arm coiled over her shoulder, ready to hit the sensei with a punch.

Of course it was then that Anko's right hand blocked the incoming blow, and then a sharp set of pain hit her through the right side ribs.

Anko's left arm, loose and left behind, had struck like a coiled snake against her ribs, forcing her to wince and let out a startled gasp as she could hear the sickening crunch of her ribs being…tenderized? Was that even possible?

"You left your side open." Anko hissed quietly, "And you get no extra points." She added thoughtfully, before sending a sharp kick against her lower stomach, blinding her in pain as she rolled on the ground before hitting the river's side. The cool water shocked her from her possible oblivion, but every little movement in her crawl back to land was positively hellish to sustain.

"Are you a brawler?" Anko queried, "Or maybe you're a wrestler. No, let me guess: you're a fighter right? Please, pray tell me why of all the stupid things to do, you had to _charge_ in?"

She bit her lip as she wobbled back up on her two feet, her lower half drenched in the water of the stream.

"I…I'm good at Taijutsu."

"Are you better than me?" Anko asked again, raising an eyebrow, "Are you some sort of stupid prodigy who thinks he can defeat a Jounin as a mere, weak, pitiful Genin?"

"N…No." She whimpered back, and once more, she realized she had done something wrong. She had forgotten to use the appellative…and it had been twice at that.

"Two strikes. Waste the third and I'll have you feel real _pain_." The woman hissed, once more a feet stamping her on the ground, her face buried in the grass, in the dirt.

"And to think it's just that simple. Can't you do it? Are you stupid? Maybe you're retarded. No, even a retard could use my appellative…are you thinking something about 'She's not really going to kill me?' perhaps?" The woman rambled, before removing her weight from her leg and grabbing her by the neck.

"Now…I want to hear it." Anko's warm breath behind her ear made her shiver as she could feel her arms limp around her, her hands trembling.

"Supremely…beautiful…and…" She hiccupped, her voice remaining in her throat.

"And?"

"And…and you're a bitch!" She yelled at her, "A fucking damn bit…" She couldn't finish, because her mouth impacted against the ground once more, the taste of dirt entering her throat as the pressure on the back of her head increased.

"I'm not in the mood for wasting time." The voice growled, "There is a thin line between childishness and maturity, you know?" The woman murmured, "There is a thin line between madness and morality. There is a thin line between truth and lie, and there's a thin line between being alive and being dead. So tell me, do you really want to cross that line? Because once you do, you snap the line. And once you snap it, one way or another you will pay for it." The pressure on the back of her head abated, probably because the woman had let her go

"Now stand up." Anko hissed. "And show me if you're a shinobi, or a thug of the streets."

She spat out the dirt from her mouth, standing back up with her eyes blinking away the tears of pain she was feeling falling down from her eyes.

She couldn't attack head on, could she? Of course she couldn't: she didn't even have a weapon with her. She couldn't even run, because she knew how fast the woman was. She couldn't…no, nothing came to her mind. There was no way out of there even by using chakra. She could try still, but it didn't mean she'd manage.

"Well? I'm waiting." Anko commented, the woman's right hand being brought under the scrutiny of her hazel eyes as if to look if the nails needed to be polished. The woman was even going as far as tapping her right foot on the ground, in wait.

She gulped heavily, letting her saliva slump down her throat as her hands trembled and moved closer to make the necessary signs. She could feel the chakra being molded, and when no pain came immediately, she began to think this was the right thing to do.

Just as the last hand sign was about to complete itself a Kunai struck her with unnatural ease through both of her palms…for a single instant, she did not register the pain of having both of her hands pierced by the metallic weapon.

For a single instant, her blood ran cold with the feeling that Sakura had ambushed her, and that she was going to die there. Then her eyes settled on her sensei, who was no longer twirling a kunai, but was looking at her with a grin, a wide predator like smirk that made her far scarier than Sakura herself.

"Wrong answer!" The woman chirped.

Just then, just as the words came…she screamed in pain as she began to run, trying to unstuck her hands.

"Now this isn't funny!" Anko's voice came from her side, before yet another Kunai struck true on her shoulder. "Run my little pet! Run!"

Her vision blurred from the tears of pain, but fear, fear and fright, made her run. Her feet stomped against the grass and the dirt, the noises of the forest forgotten behind the maniacal laughter of the purple haired woman that seemed so keen on following her and trying to kill her.

"Is this the best you can do!?" The Kunoichi snarled from behind her, just like if she had been whispering in her ear.

She did not turn around to look, but instead kept her dash, her hands felt cold and unresponsive, except for the flaring pain that came when she tried to move them. It hurt, and yet she had to do something about the Kunai, because unless she removed it, she'd be without Jutsus.

"You know what? You're no fun!" The voice was mock-pouting, she could swear the woman was having fun with her, she just knew that had to be the case.

"I kind of hoped to keep you around for at least a day or two…maybe four, just to make this a bit more symbolic." The woman teased. "Then again if this is all you have, maybe I should have been merciful and offed you with the kunai, instead of just taking away your hands."

This wasn't what she had! She could do much more! She…she knew how to mold chakra, and she knew the basic three. That was what she could do. The survival training hadn't…it hadn't…

Her eyes narrowed down for a moment, before she snapped them close, within herself hoping that this was the case. Her heart was beating fast, pouncing within her ears like it was about to burst, and yet as the chakra slowly dwindled away from her brain she felt better. She felt things clearer, light headed as she felt…and then she opened her eyes slowly.

Her hands weren't being impaled by a kunai.

Anko hadn't even moved from her spot.

She didn't feel as sore as she thought she'd be from being thrown raggedly around.

She narrowed her eyes on her sensei, who, apparently, was doing the victory sign with her right hand.

"And the victory goes to the Super-Beautiful Anko-sensei!" The woman cheered fist-bumping in the air, "I knew I had it in me to make my whiny little apprentice better! Well, how do you feel?"

She didn't see it, but she knew she had just then narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. Her teeth were gritting one with the other, and there was a positively furious look on her face.

"First lesson of the day is thus the following!" The woman shrugged after not receiving a reply, "How to recognize Genjutsu and how to disrupt it!" And then, once more, a punch landed itself straight into her guts, but this time she didn't wince as much as putting her hands together in the 'release' stance.

"First off, Genjutsu is tricky because it requires both eye contact and a set of signs." Anko began talking calmly. "In truth, the reason the sharingan is hailed as one of the 'most important Doujutsu of Konoha' just like the Byakugan," Anko sneered as she quoted with a false-mocking tone, "Is because their eyes can memorize the hand signatures of a Genjutsu they have previously seen and automatically disrupt it. Meaning that…"

The silence stretched in the meadow for a moment, before Anko's forehead sported a tick mark.

"I'm talking to you!"

"They are…immune to Genjutsus?" She hesitated, only to jump to the side and avoid a kunai, one that seemed all the more real.

"No!" The purple haired woman yelled. "It means they can disrupt them without wasting the time for the hand signs! But if they get targeted by a Genjutsu they haven't seen before…"

"Then they suffer from it?"

"Good…there's still hope." Anko nodded to herself, before grabbing yet another kunai and starting to twirl it. "Now, ways to counter Genjutsu?"

She stood quiet for a moment, and then a kunai came her way. She ducked under it, realizing that these ones were positively slower than before.

"Kai. Feeling pain from outside. Disbelieving it?"

"Your hands are blocked and you don't have enough chakra to disrupt it. The pain comes from the Genjutsu itself and you believe everything is real…what do you do then?"

The question asked appeared simple: nothing and suffer from it. Yet there had to be an answer, because after all her sensei had asked her that.

"I…die?"

"No, but you'd wish it was the truth." Anko replied smoothly. "So the only choice left, when you're in deep shit is the following: don't end in deep shit!" The woman basically yelled while pointing her kunai at her like it was a stick of sorts. "If you end up in an ambush, then you're in shit! Why didn't you act with more care? Why did you fall for an ambush? If you end up captured, then you're in shit! Why did you let the enemy capture you alive? If you end up failing a mission, then why did you fail it? You must be prepared, brat, to do everything in order to succeed…you must be prepared, girl…" Anko took a deep breath, before whispering out with her eyes cold and narrowed, "For the worst and act based on the _extremely_ worst scenario."

She blinked. She…

"I know you don't understand me now." Anko sighed. "But one day…one day you will. Maybe. Right now it's going to be enough if you'll survive till tomorrow."

And then, of course, the Kunais she had been conveniently ignoring began to disappear into smoke clouding her vision.

"What was I saying about eye contact?"

_Konohagakure No Sato Training Ground Thirteen – Taifuu Shimura_

"The first lesson I will teach you is the value of silence." Their sensei spoke clearly, sitting cross legged on the branch of a tree of the training ground. Apparently, Ibiki had hanging from the branch a long scroll filled with senbon needles.

"Each of these senbon is coated with a mildly paralyzing toxin: if you get hit, you will probably freeze for at least five minutes." Their kept on talking, "If any of you make a noise, I will hit you with one of them. The one who will get hit most times will have to remain here one additional hour taking a tongue lashing on the importance of silence. Meaning he will finish his _chores_ one hour later. You may begin."

Albeit it felt kind of heart wrenching, both Shino and he silently looked at each other for a moment, before setting their gazes on Ino who appeared to be already hanging her head defeated.

At least, only for a moment: the devious smirk the blond girl was now showing both of them made the Aburame and he perplexed.

Truly, they should have realized it sooner. She wasn't just Ino, the obnoxious blond girl…she was also Yamanaka.

Her hands cupped up in their natural form for the Shintenshin, and it was there that she stilled. Why did she still herself?

It couldn't be that she still thought that Jutsus had to be named out loud to be used, right? The 'Name-calling' was an unlucky thing that many academy students fell into: one didn't need to mutter, yell or otherwise pronounce a jutsu to make it work. One just needed to mold the chakra with the hand signs, and some time not even with that, to make it work.

There was nothing else to it. _Silence is the virtue of the shinobi._

Wasn't that what Ibiki had said? He felt puzzled, because this lesson, albeit important…it was just as if he had already had one similar to this.

It took him a moment to realize that Ino was quietly taking a step in his direction. Just as she slowly landed the foot on the ground, a Senbon needle departed from Ibiki's branch and hit her straight in the thigh. She fell on the ground sprawling, and after a couple of spasms stood very still.

He and Shino merely looked at one another and then blinked.

A light feeling of being walked upon came to his senses, his forehead strangely feeling ticklish. He narrowed his eyes while looking at the Aburame. That was completely unnecessary. Really, to try and trick him into losing? Didn't the Aburame know about the 'being a team' thing? Probably he didn't, because another buzzing sound came right next to his ear.

His eyes more than aptly were practically saying _Do It._ His fists slowly clenched themselves tightly, before the buzz came to a stop.

"Of course since an Aburame and his bugs are together, the faults of one end up on the other." Shino was twitching on the ground, by the time Ibiki's eyes settled back on him.

He looked at their sensei without as much as making a breathing noise, quietly and silently waiting for the time to pass.

"So you seem to be good at this, a natural." Ibiki remarked drily, "Your breath is barely audible, your posture is relaxed…it's a matter of surviving the heat for fifteen minutes now, isn't it?"

He did not reply.

"You know, the Sandaime was a good man." His sensei began talking, "He did a lot of things that a lot of people don't know about, but that helped Konoha in the long run."

He still did not reply, but he was visibly interested, and that it showed was probably a disgrace to his father's motto of 'keep emotions out of shinobi business'.

"One of the things he did was to secretly have shinobi who had disappeared from the radar followed around by Anbu personnel for a period varying from two to three months, in order to ensure they were not spies." Ibiki spoke again, "You're never sure if the guy that came back is lucky to be alive or a treacherous backstabber after all."

There was still no reply, and he knew he couldn't even clench his fists because it would make noise…so he stared. He looked straight at Ibiki's eyes and waited for the man's rambling to finish.

"Taifuu Shimura came back at 08:34 morning, sporting a variety of flesh wounds and senbon needles stuck within his body in various points. He suffered light charring to the face and apparently lost sensitivity over his left arm for the following hours, until he awoke at 11:56 with a groan."

He raised an eyebrow in silence, well…what was the sensei playing at?

"The first few words were 'Thank Kami' and 'Where am I', and there's much more that came to light in the following time frame." The scarred man's smile grew quite a bit, "However the mystery is not where he has been kept imprisoned, even though it's unknown...not, it's his…Localized Time Frame Amnesia? Over a specific period of one year? No. Such a thing doesn't exist…yet Taifuu Shimura can clearly remember the last day he walked out of Konoha heading towards survival training, but nothing in the middle. He has yet to display any sign of being a rogue or a Nuke-Nin or a spy. Now one might query why the need to put him in the special interrogation department group, when the risk of him being a spy is so high…"

He nearly snorted at that, but he knew his face was betraying the inner turmoil within him. He really had no idea what had happened during that year. Only bits and pieces of flashes and slow murmured voices in the back of his head were all that he could remember. Even then, the majority of them made no sense.

"Him being a conscious spy is tricky at best to define: what could they offer him? The son of the Sandaime could only be brainwashed into servicing an enemy nation, and even then there would be no guarantees. He was devoid of seals on his body at the moment of his arrival, and thus there is positively no way he'd be a spy unless of his own free will…which leaves us to the following conclusion: he might be a sleeper agent." Ibiki mused out loud, fiddling with a senbon needle.

"His attitude is one of seriousness and the perfect shinobi blend that Konohagakure no Sato loves to have among its rows, his training brought him the rookie of the year, which means that had he been a spy, his orders weren't of laying low. The question pertains however as to…what if he is saying the truth? If he is really saying the truth, then there would be positively no way to discern it, because the Yamanaka mind probe turned out inconclusive. There remains thus only one clear crystal way to have the answer…"

Ibiki's tone was soft, as his eyes strangely displayed a light guilt before the next words left his mouth.

"Ask him...are you a spy?"

His eyes widened in shock and disbelief. This was the top of the interrogation department!? It wasn't like he was going to answer that, was he? No, really, was he really expecting someone to answer that question!? He wasn't a spy for heaven's sakes! He…

"Bewilderment." Ibiki muttered with a grin, "Offense. Slight anger. Shock probably. There isn't a trace of smugness of having successfully pulled off a lie and…" What was he saying right there? "Confusion, perplexity, puzzlement…all there." All there what? Was he… "Narrowing eyes, gritting teeth, slightly slow realization isn't it? Yes well, you got it right in one go: I've been reading your body language. You have excellent control by the way, many idiots would have yelled at me midway…might have even worked in putting me off your case sooner."

The man smiled, before nimbly descending from his branch.

"Well, you really didn't believe the shinobi world was something as easy as 'see the log, hit the log, rinse and repeat' did you? Now, Hatake Kakashi came out with the catchphrase 'Look underneath the underneath' during his Anbu days…which is kind of the good old proverb 'Trust nothing that isn't you'."

He glared at the man, holding his eyes in the most murderous possible way. Suddenly, his ears caught the small groan of Ino, who was slowly standing back up…and got another needle in the shoulder, for having groaned.

"Silence means silence all the time." Ibiki smoothly said. "Take example from the Aburame: he suffered a hit, had his bugs take out the poison, and now he's down on the ground feigning still being paralyzed."

Shino did indeed slightly tense, now that he was carefully analyzing his posture, his 'fallen' posture was pretty much similar to a lazy guy laying out for the sun to tan him…if it weren't for the big bulky coat and sunglasses.

Of course the Aburame had to play the part of the dead possum: it was a perfectly logical endeavor in such a situation.

He didn't wince for the first ten minutes, but as time went by simply standing still on his feet was starting to make him feel a bit…cramped. He didn't dare to even try and take a step, not with Ibiki now far closer, humming to himself a song while walking in circles around the three still Genin.

The sun's blaze wasn't deadly, no matter the fact that the warm months were just behind the corner. The problem wasn't however with the warmth. It was with the fact that once more, Ino was trying to bring her hands into the gesture of the Shintenshin. Was she actually going to?

Well, now that she was indeed two to one with Shino, and two to zero with him, if she did aim at him she'd reach three to zero, but then she'd be in control of his body and able to do noise…but that was only if their sensei didn't hear her.

Or would he hand over the points to him if he ended up under the Shintenshin?

It was a tough call, but as he stood there watching the girl finish the hand sign, his eyes drifted to the walking…_walking_ swarm of Kikkaichu that was apparently headed for his feet.

This was playing dirty.

This was really, really unfair.

It was just an extra hour of work: there was no need to go to such lengths just to antagonize him. He had thought better from Shino. He had at least expected the Aburame to be impartial or…the bugs began to climb softly on his clothes, instead of entering through his pants.

"Shintenshin!" The yell of Ino promptly docked the blond girl a senbon from Ibiki, but then…nothing happened.

He looked perplexed at the paralyzed expression of Ino, then towards the swarm of bugs that had apparently…_covered_ him? Shino had covered for him.

At the expense of yet another senbon coated with paralyzing venom, the Aburame had covered for him. With that thing clear in mind, he did the only thing his heart told him would be acceptable to show his gratitude.

"Thank you." Of course, when the senbon hit him he didn't as much as wince. After all since ten minutes had already passed, and both Ino and Shino had three and two points each. He having only one point made him the lowest, and he could 'spend' off the remaining time in paralysis to avoid making more noise.

"You actually had to deliver that one line now, didn't you?" Ibiki muttered, before moving to sit in front of the tree once more. "I didn't even have to use all the senbons. I suppose I should have expected it from the 'good' team of the academy roster."

Even when paralyzed, he knew better. On a fifteen minute interval, giving off a paralysis that lasted five minutes meant pretty much a maximum of three hits, like those that Ino had suffered for example. Then there were two and finally one or none.

Had they all stood still it wouldn't have happened at all, and Ibiki should have known that. So why did he have to come with what seemed like the stock for an entire sewing industry?

The reason was clear of course.

"Since you're all this good, then I suppose we can keep this going…for the rest of the afternoon."

Of course: no training is done only for the sake of hitting a log, is it?

_Konohagakure no Sato – Katsu Uzuki_

She stumbled at the doorway. Her apartment had apparently been emptied of all things. Quietly, she palmed the kunai she had so gingerly 'forgotten' to hand back over to her sensei and moved inside slowly, keeping her back against the wall.

First, she peered around the corner, before deciding it was safe to enter the room and look around, frantically searching for some signs of…of where her stuff had ended up going.

There were no traces of things having been destroyed, or trashed. If Sakura had done this, then she had been incredibly cool about it: even the little furniture she had had disappeared!

The window that had been broken by the hail of kunais had apparently been repaired, but except for that the apartment was empty. Even the tatami mat with the small hidey hole, default built for every paranoid shinobi, was empty of her weapon cache. A knock on the door alerted her that somebody was actually waiting to enter the room.

Quickly, she jumped silently behind the door, looking out of the peephole to stare at the guy…Benika?

Taking a sigh of relief, she opened the door and smiled briefly.

"Benika!" Having said that, she quickly exited and closed the door behind her, "I'm sorry, but my room's a mess and…"

Benika blinked once, a small smile appearing on her face before she murmured a single word.

"Empty."

"Huh?"

"Taifuu asked. I'm leaving tomorrow with my team for Wave's border, so since he didn't want to ask Okito, lazy slob staying in Konoha as part of the 'administrative to be' guys, he asked me." The girl smiled gingerly, "If you ever want some lady time, call Fukuyo: she's in Konoha too with the med-nins."

She merely nodded numbly, before moving her head to the side.

"So…where did Taifuu ask you to take my stuff?" She had an inkling of an idea of course, but she just hadn't expected him to act…that fast.

"Shimura's house! Oh right, here's the key!" Benika was pretty much smiling as she handed over to the girl a strange wooden token. "It has a seal on it of some sorts: as long as you have it the gate opens and the traps don't spring."

She took it, examining the strange symbol that seemed to be a stylized fire covered in more neat and smaller kanjis, all impressed into the wood with a dark red substance…a substance she hoped only vaguely resembled blood: it couldn't be blood, could it?

"Thank you?" She hesitated for a moment, considering the girl was still smiling at her, brightly holding both of her arms behind her back. "Is there something…"

"Chikao told me." Benika blurted out, suddenly losing all of her 'girlish' things that clearly didn't match her appearance, "You could have told us." The tone was filled with hurt and slight anger.

"I…"

"No, no need. It's all water under the bridge." The masculine girl replied with a shrug, "Fukuyo's actually taking your old apartment, since she's moving in from outside."

"That saves me the trouble of finding out where she's living." She replied with a light giggle, "Thanks for everything Benika."

"Not a problem! Don't be a stranger now though! I'm expecting a letter with all the saucy details!" The girl laughed at that, heartily and fitfully. She blinked once, looking at Benika like she was some sort of alien, before slowly muttering back a reply.

"What?"

"You and Taifuu, living together in the same house? Come on lover girl," Benika winked, "Didn't know you had your hooks on him! Son of the Sandaime no less!"

"It's not that!" She was probably blushing, probably because her fists were clenched and her face was filled with disbelief…at least she hoped she was correctly showing it. "There's nothing of the sort between us!"

"Yet."

"No! No 'yet', at all!" She crossed her arms in an X position, shaking her head vigorously.

"So he's just a really good friend?" Benika queried once more, a strange impish grin on her face.

"Yes!" As soon as she nodded that, the tomboyish girl grinned just like a cat that's about to scarf down a mouse.

"Then…you don't mind if I make my moves, do you?" She gagged at that. Benika and…Taifuu? Wait. No! That was completely out of the equation!

"Benika! No! You can't!" She was probably getting all flustered over nothing, but still she had to say something!

"Oh, why not?" Benika chuckled at her antiques, probably thinking something funny along the lines of having fooled her and such.

"Because he's my…" family? That was just a childish thing they had decided upon in the orphanage…and then Taifuu had forgotten even that.

"See? Taifuu and Katsu sitting under a tree, holding hands…" as Benika began to sing, a sudden chill of cold ran on her spine, making her unnaturally wince and then look at the stairs. There was no-one there, of course.

She took a deep calming breath, before scowling at the brown haired girl.

"Benika. You're a kunoichi for Kami's sakes, not a civilian girl."

"Hit a sore spot huh?" The girl stopped singing, before nudging with her head towards the stairs, "Let's get out of here then. I'm thrilled to see what Okito came up with back at Taifuu's home."

"Came up with what?" She asked, not at all thrilled about the other boy's lazy demeanor…being in charge of 'coming up' with…something?

"You know, I put your stuff in a room and Taifuu's stuff went in another. Then of course Okito had to point out how I put your stuff in a bad way for…'chi' or some sort of yin-yang thing. SO I challenged him to place the furniture."

"You just didn't want to place it yourself." She deadpanned, earning a brighter still smile from the short haired girl.

"Precisely!" The chirping sound was a tell-tale sound that indeed, she had hit the bull's eye dead-on.

"Let's just go…" She sighed. She was just kind of glad it was Fukuyo who had stayed behind. Sharing Konoha, big as it was, with Benika was just like inviting stress and nerve related issues to attack her on the back.

Taifuu's house was a really old house. At the same time, it also was very modern looking, depending on which side of the coin one decided to look at. Technically, the iron fence with pointy ends was very much western-like, with the gate swinging open automatically through the use of carefully placed fuinjutsu seals. At the same time, the house's garden was taken straight out of an old painting, with an old oak planted like it was the sole worthy of bearing shade over the house itself.

The rest of the garden was trimmed and cared for like it had never been abandoned, and the door itself was a wooden one painted of a dull black color. The knocker, of course, was a metallic pear elongated tube. She didn't have to knock, because the key in her hand merely sent a tug towards the door, and it swung open in a moment.

The next instant, she was mentally swearing to herself that no, she would never -ever- lose the key. The façade of the house was made of concrete, the windows were slits framed with those paper-like panels that could slide within the very walls and the upper floors apparently had a gothic look to it.

The hallway was instead pretty…normal, for a house. Passing the porch outside made with white wood and parquet, the interior held a surprisingly old Japanese styled fashion, with paper walls for the unimportant walls of the house. Those that instead were important, as in supporting everything else, were made of bricks covered with white paint.

The house was really the dread of anyone with a minimum of fashion sense.

Noises of stuff moving came from the floor above, where the rooms probably were and where Okito was probably fighting his own battle against the 'Chi', whatever the hell it was.

She was about to step inside, when Benika's hand stopped her by the shoulder.

"Tsk. Tsk…You're forgetting something."

"Eh?"

"Repeat after me: I'm home!" Benika exclaimed to the house, only for no-one to answer back.

"That's embarrassing!" She shot back, glancing around and hoping to Kami that no-one heard her.

"Now, no need to fret! Come on girl! Get a move on!" And with that, Benika pushed the girl inside.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

"We're done." Ibiki stated quite simply, "See you tomorrow at five in the morning in the T&I department." A quick twirl of leafs, and the man was no longer there. They had finished the last of the day's missions, and had delivered back the successful completion to their sensei, who had then dismissed them…strangely even Ino, albeit she should have stayed an hour more.

"I…I hate that man." Ino sputtered. "And I hate you two too!" She exclaimed, before stomping off angrily.

Shino remained quiet for a moment, before turning to look at him, who kept his face, or so he thought, completely blank.

"My reasoning for today's…"

"I know." He replied quietly, "At first your idea was to ascertain certainty of passing the test by having both me and Yamanaka get one point. When that failed you waited until the Yamanaka took another one, before finally being sure she would fail a third time, so you could act with ease and attempt to mend the temporary emotional rift the action you made created."

"That is…" Shino took a moment to muster the next word, "correct."

"I know. I had begun thinking the test was but a cover in order to ensure my loyalty to Konoha, still the true matter was probably not the stealth training but seeing how the bonds of strength would work within our team."

"Bonds of strength?" Shino inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Like familial relations," he replied quickly, "Mother and Father can't both always be right, when one says left and the other says right, and you have no discernible proof on who's right or wrong, then you choose based on a bond and who has it stronger. In this case, it was probably to test our interpersonal relations with one another: Ino acted childishly from the beginning, I suspect that had she not lost any point, none of us would have risked too."

The Aburame nodded.

"It is…refreshing to hear logic from someone who follows my same train of thoughts."

"Do not consider this the normal attitude of myself, I am merely adapting my choice of words to better reflect something you are suited to understand, by doing so I am moving closer to you than the Yamanaka, so that in case of choice by bonds you'd choose me over her. It is a pretty selfish thing." He spoke swiftly, calmly, his eyes showing boredom and not the calculative gleam he hoped he had lost somewhere…why did he have to lose his calculative gleam?

Wait.

What the hell was he saying to Shino of all people!?

"I seem to understand even better your reasoning. I am also inclined to accept this form of bond-ship in the professional term of shinobis watching each other's backs...I do not…swing that way." For a moment, he kept his voice in his throat.

It was just a second, and then…

"What? That's…that's…" He had no idea if he should actually bash the Aburame's head against the dirt, fry him and his bugs to death, or maybe burn him in tar. Maybe the last option would leave the bugs crispy and ready to be eaten?

"A joke. I am…wanking your chain, as some of our crasser colleagues of same bracket of age tend to slang."

"If you create a mask for yourself, don it until you are sure the mask is real and you are false." He replied, droning out for a moment. _The best masks are those you wear upon a dead face._

Who had told him that? A boring guy, someone who didn't speak much but had an insane obsession with something…he recalled bits and pieces of floor being smashed to the ground, and wood being chopped and carved. He…he blinked, and then it was over.

"I will take great care in heeding your words in case of a deep cover assignment." Then Shino bowed, and respectfully departed for his own clan compound.

Left alone, he turned around for a moment, slowly touching with his fingers the small hole that the senbon needle had made in his shoulder. He was in need of a bath, urgently.

As he quietly took his steps within the building that was his house, but certainly not a home, he muttered on instinct the usual.

"I'm home!" Before flinching and cursing his stupidity. There was no-one, so it was impossible for someone to come down the stairs and greet him, right?

"Welcome back!" The voices were a mixture of female and male, as Okito, Benika and Katsu came down the stairs.

"See? I told you he'd say it! Cash over Okito." As Benika extended her hand, the other shinobi sighed, before handing over some ryo bills.

"Well then, let's leave and get something to eat, Okito-kun!" Benika's arm swiftly encompassed Okito's shoulders, before starting to move towards the door. Not before whispering something to his ear.

"Remember, I don't want to be an aunt until later!" And with that exclamation, Benika walked out followed by Okito, who was sheepishly mouthing how he'd really like being saved.

"Well…" Katsu sheepishly began, crossing her arms over her chest, "Welcome home."

"She manhandled you too?" He asked, clearly hinting at Benika.

"Of course." Katsu replied, rolling her eyes before turning and heading upstairs, "You'd better to check your room: Okito was the one to set the furniture after all."

"What?"

"Feng Shui crap or something like that…helps to feel the 'chi' flow around apparently…"

There was a moment in which his eyes looked in hers, and then, as one single body, they both began to laugh out loud.

"I don't know if there's anything in the fridge, and I'm beat." He began, "As long as Okito placed the futon somewhere, I'll be more than happy to sleep and care for the furniture later on." And with that, he opened the door of his room.

Only, his passage was blocked by the desk, under which he had to crawl, before climbing what appeared to be two armchairs, a stool, and a lamp, before finally reaching the rest of his room that was far more devoid of furniture…except for the futon, which stood basically pressed against the window.

"Remind me," he exclaimed towards the outside, hoping for Katsu to hear him, "Never to let Okito touch my stuff again!"

"You're lucky you had little stuff! He placed my desk sideways and upside down, before mounting a hammock on it…I also have my futon nailed to the wall…and I'm wondering how he managed to put the nails through the wall." Katsu's voice came back quite quickly, and for once, he strangely felt at ease.

Maybe now the…house…could actually become a home?

Maybe it could.

**_The beast lurks in the darkness, eyes glittering and ready to strike at the lamb's neck. Silent does the predator slither, yet the lamb might be a wolf in sheep's clothing, and the beast might be just another prey, for a bigger predator...the one that lurks in the skies out of the thoughts of all._**

**Author's notes**

**D-ranks, boring.**

**Apprentices gets no D-rank, that's why there will be a clear variation of what one does (which is another reason one got a team and another an apprenticeship, to show the different sides)**

**As always, I will reiterate No Oc shipping. **

**That's all for the moment folks.**

**Next chapter will probably have the Wa…**

**(Yeah, right. Like hell. Wave arc? Please! Let's do things the right way for once…the shinobi way!)**


	9. The Settling of Butterflies

The Twisted Reality 9

_**The beast lurks in the darkness, eyes glittering and ready to strike at the lamb's neck. Silent does the predator slither, yet the lamb might be a wolf in sheep's clothing, and the beast might be just another prey, for a bigger predator...the one that lurks in the skies out of the thoughts of all.**_

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

"Right flank." Shino buzzed through the small radio, his voice nothing more than a light whisper that he still picked on.

"On it." He whispered back in reply, taking careful steps atop the tree branch he was on. The target dashed beneath them, meowing and running like hell.

"Distraction coming." He supplied, narrowing his eyes at the sight of the blond haired girl prowling through the vegetation of the undergrowth of one of Konoha's small parks. For a moment, he stilled while taking a deep breath, taking in the pure air thick with the smell of resin and tree bark, the sensation all too familiar with that of a long time before.

As his feet held against the bark, he felt the warmth of the sun bask on his head, warming him as he absent-mindedly palmed a kunai and began to make it spin slowly within his hand.

"Oh hey, oh hey." He hummed, as his eyes snapped open a second later while he pushed his legs hard against the bark and jumped down.

The trees, the bandit camp, the falling down and the hope of a quick death, the sailing arc of the Kunai…he remembered that, the thrill, the adrenaline.

He remembered that, he knew that as the kunai left his hand it would sail and end up straight in front of the cat, forcing him to jump to the side, where Ino would scare him and send him the other way, where Shino was. If the cat instead went backwards…he'd be there to catch it.

Tora the cat was captured within five minutes of being found, with no wounds on him or his teammates, albeit Ino held a slightly sulking attitude for a moment, refusing however to speak about it.

"This is the last one, isn't it?" He asked, earning a small nod from Shino. "C-ranks now await us." He supplied with a small smile, to signal his satisfaction.

"I hope we will be suitably ready for the tasks ahead of us." The Aburame replied quietly.

"Thou worry not! Tis' a great deal to humility be betrothed!"

"…stard." Ino mumbled.

"Have thou spoken, fair lady?" He queried, having half an idea of what Ino had actually murmured between gritted teeth.

"Bastard." The blond haired girl mumbled, "You're a bastard. You're both bastards. I'm part of this team too, but none of you even listen to me! What the hell, I'm a kunoichi too! I passed together with you, and we're the best of the class! Why don't you include me too in your plans!?" As she screeched that, her eyes turned teary for a moment, before shaking her head. "Never mind: you're both assholes." Sulkily, she began to pace quickly through them, pushing them apart as she stomped off towards the destination they should go to drop the cat.

The meow of the cat grew distressed, as Ino was probably choking the life out of the beast. He looked at Shino for a brief instant, before sighing.

"Should we?"

"Emotional stability should be a requirement of a successful shinobi." Shino pointed out.

"Thy heart so hard to deaden is! Why, oh cruel fates, do you besiege me with such tasks!?" He exclaimed, before rolling his eyes and making a nod in the direction Ino had run off to, "Let's catch up with her."

"Indeed." And the next moment, both boys began to run in order to catch up with the furious girl.

"I'm not listening to your excuses!" Ino huffed as she probably heard them run towards her.

"We aren't going to apologize." He replied hotly, "Not until you apologize first."

"What!?" She turned around like having been whipped, her face red from ill repressed anger.

"You heard me." He rebuked her, "You should apologize to whatever Kunoichi you stole the title of 'best' to." As he crossed his arms around his chest, he pointed with his right hand to the sky. "Thy disgrace Kami knows, bequest his pardon and grace shall befall."

"Me…Me apologize?" Ino hissed, "I got full marks in everything at the academy! I was at the top in Taijutsu, Genjutsu and Ninjutsu for the female side. I was the best…no, I _am_ the best."

"No, you aren't." He replied quietly, "Does thy pride blind you to the truth? Does thy arrogance know no bound?"

"Why can't you speak like a normal person for once!? What the hell, you think you're funny? Well you are definitively not!" As Ino screamed that straight in his face, he shook his head.

"You are a brat." He spoke clearly and slowly, "And I wonder how you managed to be the best Kunoichi of this generation, if you act like this." He added, "You are loud. You are obnoxious. You scream and act like the world must bow to your will. You are everything I despise and dislike: you are a bubblehead, and guess what? I don't care if you want to become a 'pretty and powerful kunoichi', because in my book you're nothing more than a snotty kid who needs a lesson in humility." His fists clenched tightly, before he snapped his head to the side.

"Shino, was I wrong in my statement?"

The Aburame raised an eyebrow behind his shades, considering it became visible to him, it meant he had raised it quite a bit.

"I'd be glad to refrain from worsening the situation any longer."

"Fine, coward." He muttered, smiling slightly at the Aburame's flinch, "I don't think holding words up works in a team, so let's cut to the chase." He turned his eyes towards Ino, and took a step forward.

Ino was apparently holding Tora tightly to herself, her eyes looking at him slightly puffed, like they were about to start crying. She apparently hadn't yet begun because he had still to finish speaking.

"Because of a simple mistake made by a Chuunin, I saw my friends die in front of my eyes. Because of a mistake, an idiotical mistake that not even a worthless academy student would make, my friends died in front of my very own eyes and I swore upon their last dying breaths that I would carry on their dreams, because they had died to protect _me_."

"_Carry on my dream!" _

"So, when I see a brat." He took another step forward, "Who knows nothing abo_ut what being a shinobi is, I feel angry._" The voice was now guttural and hoarse. "And when I hear her whine and whine and cry and whine some more I get even angrier…because she knows nothing and speaks like her _grades_ count something in the world!" As soon as he exclaimed that, he took another step and Ino retreated of one.

"You think you're special huh? You think everything's going to be fine because you're pretty, or maybe because you've got full marks on all tests…well, when a bandit holds you at blade point, grades mean shit." He pointed his right arm at her, his index finger aiming at her head with his hand in the form of a gun.

"You are a bull's eye with your cheerful attitude and exclamations, your whining is hearable from a distance, and your stealth skills are worse than pitiful: they're worthless. You don't crawl on the ground without whining about grass and dirt at least ten times, and that's just plain pathetic you know? You can't hit a target that moves with precision, and apparently you don't even calculate the wind when throwing shurikens, and what about your non-existent stamina? Hey pretty princess, grow up." He hissed; his face inches away from hers, "Because if you don't…you'll die." He opened his arms wide, his shoulders rising in a shrug.

"Don't believe me though: believe reality. Welcome to the game, welcome to hell, welcome to being a ninja."

Then he grabbed Tora by the scruff of the neck pulling it out of Ino's arms.

"This is a chore for kids." He snorted, "The Yondaime is right, you know? We kill for money, we spy for money…being a 'beautiful' kunoichi means nothing if you die in a ditch with your face charred by an explosive, does it?" He inquired with a snarl. "No…I suppose it doesn't mean anything to you… just go on and play with dolls or make belief with the other toddlers...at least you won't risk killing others more worthy than you."

He took a deep breath, before heading off, Tora held by the neck. He'd deliver the cat to the delivery point: an old attendant of her highness, the Daimyo's wife. He'd stamp the mission completed, and then the cat would probably escape again along the route back to the capital…like it had done for years and years. The Daimyo's wife should have just quit and bought another cat…but since when were nobles smart?

He had just chewed off the head of the blond girl, and now he dearly hoped they could at least send a transfer because of the Kunoichi's future lack of cooperation if she stayed in the same team.

He had little doubt with whom Shino would prefer to work alongside with, if his following him was of any indication: logic always went a long way after all.

They reached their sensei soon after, having already delivered the cat and gotten the stamp needed to signal it completed. The man was speaking in a hush tone with another man, one with blond hair and the same shade of eyes that Ino had.

Of course turning back he could see that Ino was actually missing from the team…probably to whine about them to her father if this was of any indication. Yet no harsh rebukes came his way, if anything the man smiled at them before leaving Ibiki and waving goodbye.

"Where's the third member?" Ibiki growled, looking all the bit menacing as he was.

"We had a disagreement." He replied slowly: there was no need to beat around the bush, and Ibiki would have come to know it anyway. It was better to get this out of the way quickly, so that they could move on and get a replacement; one that maybe wasn't a stuck up girl.

"Explain the disagreement, Genin Shimura." Ibiki snarled.

He looked at him, simply and effectively looked at him, without saying a word. His right eye was twitching as he tried to reel in some of his temper, before exploding in front of his Jounin-sensei, and as he did that he slowly took a deep calming breath.

"Genin Ino Yamanaka complained about mine and Shino Aburame's lack of interaction with her, or our insertion of her skills within our team planning. Considering her skills were subpar in anything but theoretical matters, there was no need to implement her in the _chores_." He stated out like he was making a cold report to his superior officer, which was indeed the case, but it was clear by his tone what he thought about it…really clear.

"Of course when she confronted us upon the matter, and then left without hearing our side of the argument we ran to catch up with her and make things clear." He added carefully, "She did not like hearing the truth of the matter."

"Oh?" Ibiki raised an eyebrow, "And what was the truth?"

"That she's a disgrace for the Kunoichi of Konohagakure no Sato." He deadpanned, without even flinching for a second, "That she's just a snob who knows nothing of the world. Actually, sir, I also added she should go back to playing with dolls."

Ibiki didn't appear visibly contrite or angry, if anything his face was bored. A moment later, the man inclined his head to the side, before taking a deep breath.

"I suppose I could move forward a notice to change teams, but you would need to find a substitute, wouldn't you?"

"You…You'd really do it?" He asked surprised. He had half expected the man to do something to change his idea, or to say something about how they were meant to stick together and do everything as a team.

"We are talking of C-ranks from now on, kid." Ibiki growled, "Do you think I'd lead a team who has issues out on a path of blood? Even well-oiled teams get some of their members killed during C-ranks eventually. I'm not taking chances: you two apparently are on the same boat of thought, I'm not keen on getting more chores from the Yondaime, and you wouldn't be lying about her abilities because none of you has a previous history with her. Thus if you can find an apt substitute, then yes, I will let you swap teammate."

"Shouldn't we try and see if Yamanaka-san can change?" Shino queried.

"Each of you finished six missions a day, for a grand total of eighteen a day, we had but forty to do. This is the third day and we're done now." As the Torture and Interrogation chief waved the last printed mission with his hand in front of them, his face didn't show any type of worry or preoccupation.

"The Yondaime told us to be done in five days, we now have most of the afternoon, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to report to the mission assignment desk…You know what it means then?" The man added slowly, waiting probably for them to say something.

"We either convince Yamanaka-san to grow up by the end of the fifth day or we find a substitute by the end of the fifth day." He replied quickly.

"Precisely: it's that or the Genin Corps." Ibiki's veiled threat fell upon him like a ton of bricks.

"What?" He gurgled out strained.

"I will not lead a splintered team outside of Konoha's walls." The man replied quietly, "You are all either on the same side, or you can get together with hundreds of other Genins in the Genin corps…they were looking for runners last I checked."

The Genin corps of Konohagakure no Sato weren't a black sheep, per se. They were just made up mostly of those Shinobi and Kunoichi who had passed the 'prime' of their life without passing the Chuunin exams. On one hand, it was for those who actually enjoyed doing messenger duty, or who would end up becoming Desk Chuunins, on the other it was also composed of failures and weaklings who had never managed to pass the Chuunin exams, and who their very own team had left behind.

It wasn't much of a threat though…if you enjoyed staying on the border line of poverty, but for a clan heir like Shino or Ino? It was a clearly offensive prospect. He furthermore was the son of the Sandaime: it would be a terrible blow to the Shimura's family pride, even though he was the only Shimura still alive.

"Understood sensei." Shino replied curtly, with a quick nod.

"Good. We will meet after lunch, three o'clock at training ground twenty-eight." Those words said, Ibiki stood up and left, but the small smirk on the man's face said it all.

He narrowed his eyes at the retreating back of the man. Of course the man wasn't just a Jounin for nothing…he had earned his rank, and now he also understood why people were afraid of him.

He'd have to find a substitute or get Ino to grow up. In both cases…maybe Shino would help?

He turned around, seeing Shino looking at him, probably waiting for orders.

"Let's go and look for Ino." He sighed.

"Are you sure?" Shino replied, curious.

"Well…we can always tell her we wanted to apologize, and get her on the right track." He replied, his mind starting to churn out just what to tell the girl.

"She would suspect the sudden change of heart." The Aburame pointed out.

"Oh no…I need to _apologize_ for the harsh words, not to change the reasons I spoke them." He grinned lightly, "Deliver upon thy fools the olive branch of wisdom and peace, and thee heart will strike true towards those who wish for a second chance."

"What if she does not want a second chance?" Shino demanded, his gaze set on the road ahead of them.

"Then we start looking for a substitute."

And with that reply, the two of them kept on walking in silence.

_Training Area Forty-Four – Katsu Uzuki_

She was positively pissed off. The third kunai in a row had missed its target, and for the third time she had felt something whip her on her back. Whatever it was it had yet to tear through her clothes, but she had little doubt it would soon start to make her bleed.

"Keep those fingers nimble and reactive!" The voice of her so dreaded sensei came through the foliage, "It's not that difficult to hit a pineapple, is it!?"

Clearly, the mad lady had decided she was going to pay for whatever sin she had committed, or maybe she was genuinely caring of making her reach the top. Whatever the idea was, she was feeling terribly murderous right about then, especially against pineapples.

The purpose was to manage a hit with one of her kunais against said fruit, which was apparently capable of changing its direction in mid-air, or at least appeared to have a will of its own considering it kept on evading her attacks.

"Are you telling me you're letting a pineapple, of all things, defeat you?" The next moment, she felt a strong round object scrape her cheek with enough strength that it could have been a punch, for all she knew. She fell on the ground, growling her frustration at the offended fruit which was apparently floating in mid-air.

"I call this…pineapple-no-jutsu." Anko's voice came with a teasing tone from above her, "Or…the evolution of carrot on a stick: pineapple on a ninja wire."

"It's carrot and a stick! Get your facts straight at least!" She yelled back at the woman, standing up. She knew Anko wouldn't be offended by that: the purple haired woman was apparently completely unfazed by what she called her, as long as it wasn't done with others around. Sometimes, she even thought that her sensei actually enjoyed being insulted.

Few seconds later, and the pineapple was moving once more, just like a puppet tied with strings.

"Well, if you say so…" Just as her sensei's voice teased her, wires wrapped themselves around her right ankle, pushing her on the ground as the Kunai she had in her hand fell on the ground. She yelped from the shock, letting herself being pulled through the dirt, until she suddenly kicked with her left foot against the ground, grabbing another kunai in the meantime and, as she was airborne, cut the wire holding her. Spinning around, she threw her weapon straight against the origin of the wire, hearing back from it a solid 'thunk' noise…which was far better than the usual nothing.

"You murderer of trees! You Tree-slaughterer!" Anko's voice kept on singing without a bit of worry, probably she hadn't even managed to hit near her. No, more than probably, it was surely.

"You're getting on my nerves." She growled, her hand mechanically moving to get another kunai, only to find that her pouch was empty. The only thought she had, for the next few seconds, was of how she was no longer armed. It lasted only for a brief moment, because a second later she was completely tied up by ninja wire, and hoisted upwards against a tree.

The wire's pressure against her was uniformed, and luckily she had little exposed skin for the wire to actually press against raw. It still didn't make for a pleasant sensation, being bundled by a type of rope that was used to kill enemy shinobi.

"And what are you going to do about it?" Anko mused out loud, as the purple haired kunoichi walked towards the girl with a clear flaunting hip movement. "Being on your nerves means shit girl." The kunoichi added, before dropping her down like a bag of potatoes.

"You're dead by the way." Her sensei drawled out annoyingly, "Lesson's over for the moment: start scurrying around for the blood sucking leeches."

She groaned in pain as she stood back up, massaging her stiff arms and joints as she slowly walked towards the river. She wouldn't be doing any _nonsensical D-rank chore_ as her sensei tended to call them, but she did need after all some money to live by. Apprentices were placed under the care of their masters, and thus it was the master who decided just how much to help their students _live_; meaning that her sensei did absolutely nothing.

She was forced to collect plants, animals, poisons and the likes from the training ground Forty-Four, dubbed 'The Forest of Death' and sell them back in Konoha. Her _loveable_ sensei got a cut, because she would intervene, maybe, if a dangerous beast were to lurk its way towards her. A pity that her teacher's definition of dangerous meant 'anything outright mortal that I can't kill'…which left little Anko would actually move for.

She didn't have to follow a strict line of conduct, like always being dressed in a yukata, learning how to play the shamisen or even having tea ceremonies, but she was forced to follow her teacher's orders. Refusing to do so was _immediate_ treason. A Jounin-sensei had three students, and while the relationship was usually more lax refusal of obeying orders was met with a _warrant_ for treason, and usually it never went beyond that.

Apprentices were different because they learned from their masters _without_ passing through the secrecy laws concerning techniques. If her sensei wished, she could teach her a D-rank technique or an S-rank one, and go unpunished.

The side effect was that if she, apprentice, used said technique to kill a Konoha civilian, then her master would face the fault just as well as she.

She could of course ask to change master, or be sent within the Genin pool, but chances like this one happened rarely, and she had been lucky. Maybe Sakura's lack of actions as of recently meant just that: she had finally left her alone.

She quietly pricked the finger of her right hand, before letting drops of blood flow in the water of the stream near the thick water reeds. Soon the water began to bubble up, as the ferocious leeches that resembled more small black water locusts than vermin fought for the crimson liquid.

Quickly, she scurried through her supplies for the small net, usually needed to hold medicinal pills. Dropping it in the water, she soon hauled off a good dozen of still twitching leeches that had ended up stranded within the wires. The leather pouch on her belt popped open, she began the slow process of fishing out the small leeches and pouring them within their future home at least for a couple of hours.

Once the pouch was filled, she turned around to walk towards her sensei, who had been napping with her back against a tree bark. A giant anaconda had her head split in two by a kunai, straight above her teacher. Probably the snake had tried to prowl above the Jounin, and had learned its lesson with its death.

"Skin the snake," was all that her sensei muttered, while keeping to herself against the tree trunk, apparently trying to hold up her sleep posture.

She meekly nodded, before setting off to reach her teacher's 'victim', only to be stopped halfway through the meadow by Anko's voice.

"No, not my snake! The one _behind_ you!" And just like that, she turned around to stare into two giant yellow orbs. A really big snake, to say the least, stood there hissing at her and ready to lunge and strike her. That did it. That day was definitively the worst day in her life.

Never mind the fact that she was without explosive tags to begin with.

_Konohagakure no Sato – Taifuu Shimura_

Shino knew where they had to go, at least. He had half the mind to ask the Aburame boy how he was able to track down the kunoichi in question, when it became clearly evident he was relying on his Kikkaichus. He could hear them buzz every now and then intermittently, guiding the boy towards the left instead of the right, or bringing him through an alley rather than through the street.

They finally found the girl huddled on a bench of the park, her face hidden within her knees and her arms encircling her legs. He looked at Shino, who looked back at him.

Even through the shades the boy wore, the message delivered was pretty much clear.

"Alright." He mouthed slowly, taking hesitant steps towards the blond haired girl until he got precisely in front of her.

"Beauty sleeping?" He commented offhandedly, taking a step back as the kunoichi literally jerked awake and jumped upwards, nearly hitting his chin with her head. "Careful there!"

"What do you want now?" She hissed at him, "I'm not talking to you." She muttered, turning her head to the side and huffing as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"So you'd rather have a pleasant life in the Genin corps?" He replied calmly. His eyes darted to their surroundings, were the people of the village were happily going by with little fuss or trouble. "It certainly will help you land a husband, I suppose."

"What the hell do you know about me!?" She yelled at him suddenly, pointing her right hand with her finger straight at him. "What is it!? You're enjoying this? You think it's funny to come down on me as if my self-esteem is some sort of carrion to be eaten? Do you get off doing this to me? What is your Kami-Be-Damned problem!?"

"What is yours then?" He asked back. "Why aren't you doing something to change? Why do you insist on being a pampered and spoiled princess that…"

"I am not pampered nor am I spoiled!" She yelled back at him, this time her right hand morphing into a slap that dashed out fast enough to catch him off-guard. The slap resounded strongly, as the girl huffed to take her breath back. "I am not spoiled."

"Prove it." He snapped back.

"Gladly." Ino growled, setting into a loose stance just as he did the same. Shino was watching the exchange from nearby, looking around in carefully concealed nervousness in hope that none of the Chuunin assigned to police duty or any Uchiha or Anbu would pass by. It took the Aburame a moment to quickly assuage the situation and then whisper his own words.

"No maiming. No Killing."

He nodded as his left hand went in a hook-like form to try and fish out Ino's left leg to try and make her loose her balance. The girl jumped backwards before quickly charging in from slightly to the left of his side, but he sidestepped to the right, his right hand punching forward and getting deviated by the girl's left arm that came down swooping. Twirling on her left ankle, Ino's right leg came upward in an arc, aiming at his side.

His left arm descended as his forearm took the blunt of the blow. It felt nothing more than a light pinch: he had felt far worse.

Their scuffle lasted for seven minutes, after which the blond haired girl appeared to be ready to fall on the ground from the fatigue.

"I told you." He muttered, "You're a danger for yourself and your comrades. Seven minutes and you're already slipping." His right hand viciously pierced through the girl's hastily placed up forearms, punching her straight in the guts. "See? You'd be dead had I used a kunai."

Ino coughed, holding with both of her arms her lower stomach where she had been hit. He didn't as much as flinch at the sight, but simply whipped out a kunai and offered it to the girl.

"Prove you really want to be a Kunoichi. I'd rather live in the Genin corps than risk my neck out on a mission with one who can't watch my back." He narrowed his eyes when the girl grabbed the kunai and took a step back. He had expected her to just give up actually: he had no doubts they could pretty well find a 'desperate' Genin who wished to be part of the group from the very same Genin corps he had been speaking of. Instead the girl had grabbed the kunai, what for, he had no idea.

"I'm not spoiled and I'm not pampered." She spat out, before pulling her pony-tail out in front of him and…cutting it down, "And I'm going to show it to you. But I'll never be just another shinobi! I'll be the best one there is!"

He raised an eyebrow, looking at the sudden display of anger mixed with flustered and seething rage that intertwined also with a mixture of determination and a slight bit of fear. Fear? Why was she afraid to begin with? _"Reading another's body is easy, Naruto. __**You just need to remember what a dead man face is, and notice the differences.**__"_

And then it hit him. The girl was afraid of being rejected again. She hadn't been boisterous by nature, but only because she had been completely scared out of her wits: she had been afraid of being overshadowed and even then, in that precise moment, she was feeling the same. She was afraid of being left behind.

"All right." He muttered back, "But no yapping during missions higher than D-rank until we hit Chuunin."

"You're on."

Shino merely looked at them both with a facial gesture that pretty much meant 'Why did I end up with insane people?' with a bit of 'It could have been worse, at least they're not Kiba'; although those were speculation on his side, rather than real expressions of the Aburame boy.

They still had training that afternoon though…and while he doubted everything with the Yamanaka was resolved, at the very least she wouldn't risk getting caught in a hold by being yanked by her hair. Kami had to be thanked for that small grace, at least. It was as he began to walk towards the training ground however that he frowned.

The last words he had thought…they had been directed at him, or at someone else?

_**If the movement of wings of a butterfly tear apart continents, then what is the consequence for the stampede of a demon? **_

**Author's notes**

**Took me a while to gather enough time to get this chapter out, being busy on the HP side of Fanfiction for a while…As I found out, a lot of people complained mostly about the OCs. Which however are there only till chapter six and will reappear at intermittence until being snuffed out later on…**

**I usually prefer a slow build-up, with keeping hidden from the reader determined notions as to make it all the more worthy at the end. While rightfully so some might complain about something, it wouldn't be the same to just 'deliver' immediately and then have the broth stir and stir and stir.**

**Even Sakura being an Uzumaki (through adoptions) has far more distant meanings than a mere 'yes because I can'. Or her being completely bonkers. Just like the subtle hints I gave away of Naruto's tests (or should I say Taifuu?) being different from those of the others. Still, even this story will now follow the formatting of 'five thousand words per chapter' since I find it relaxing. **


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